On the Way to the First CSP Pilot Plant in Jordan: The WECSP Project☆

Abstract The European Union (EU) and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan are executing a project “Capacity Building for Wind Energy and Concentrating Solar Power in Jordan – WECSP”, financed by the EU under the ENPI and EuropeAid Program. Beneficiary is the National Energy Research Center NERC, Amman, Jordan. Within this project, testing facilities and pilot plants for both wind energy and concentrating solar power (CSP) will be established at a site owned by NERC. To support NERC, a Technical Assistance (TA) team led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has been contracted. We report on the execution of the TA contract and the resulting implementation of the WECSP project so far, including the legal framework and preparations for CSP installations in Jordan, requirements, grid connection, power purchase and experiences made. The assessment of solar resources at different sites as one main criterion in the site selection process is reported, including the actual resource information for the chosen site at Al Fujeij. The preparation of technical specifications for the CSP tender is reported, containing the CSP pilot plant the CSP test lab equipment. We describe the resulting tender and the evaluation procedure of the six bids that had been received. A supply contract was signed between the owner of the plant NERC and the technology provider Solar Euromed for the supply of a CSP pilot plant of 0.5 MWe capacity based on Linear Fresnel collector technology, the delivery of test equipment and training and capacity building activities. The pilot plant and test lab will be implemented during 2014/2015. Details on the actual status of implementation will be presented elsewhere.