After the launch of the Shams Ma'an Project presentation, participants visited the project's site which is located in the southern parts of Jordan within Ma'an Development Area's (MDA) Industrial Park. The Shams Ma'an project is undertaken by Qawar Energy in partnership with MDA, a 400 million dollar project, spread across 2 million square meters.
The 150 participants were welcomed in the Ma'ani way, by the Ma'an Youth Folklore Arts Group, where they we greeted with songs that reflect the heritage and civilization of the city of Ma'an. At the receiving end were Ma'an Development Area's CEO, Mr. Mohammed S. Turk, Ma'an Mayor, Khaled Al Khattab and Ma'an Development Area's COO, Muhannad Tarawneh.
The participants were representatives of decisions makers and specialists in the area of solar energy industry, financial and banking sectors, consultants, donors, EPC's as well as legislators from governmental and semi- governmental organizations and media representatives from various countries.
During the Tour, Mr. Turk said: "The Industrial Park is among the most important and largest clusters in Ma'an Development Area. Covering an area of 7.5 km2 , the Industrial Park was prepared to cater to a wide variety of industries, light, medium and heavy, and be home to an important number of manufacturing and production plants that meet the needs of the local markets as well as the regional and international markets."
Mr. Turk went on to explain the available investment opportunities in Ma'an Development Area, outlining the accomplishments since its announcement as a Development Area. He also added, "Ma'an Development Company considers solar energy to be a priority in their development plans recognizing the high solar resource that Ma'an area offers, which promises to support the country's growing energy needs, putting Ma'an Development Area at the forefront of solar energy innovation in the region. Shams Ma'an project is in line with and enforces Ma'an Development Company's mandate in creating a solar hub in Jordan for training, research and development in addition to attracting solar technology companies and investors which will have a profound social economical impact on Ma'an".
The project will ensure positive long-term socioeconomic effects in southern Jordan by creating hundreds of job opportunities during the construction phase and subsequent operations, addressing Jordan as the clean energy hub. The importance of the project lies in transforming Jordan into a country able to benefit from one of it's greatest available resources, the sun, in addition to leading the away in energy through the Shams Ma'an Project.
On his part, Mayor of Ma'an, Khaled Khattab welcomed Jordan's guests, saying "The city of Ma'an is experiencing expedited and expanded developments as a result of the major projects executed following the announcement of the Special Development Zone by His Majesty King Abdullah II. The necessitated developing and expanding services offered by the municipality, in addition to playing a holistic role to contribute to a comprehensive development process, is essential for us as municipality as it is our main objective to foster the development process".
On the other hand Mr. Ramzi Haffar, a local investor in MDA, also commented during the tour saying:, "As an investor we plan to benefit from the opportunities and incentives provided to us from MDA, especially the long term environmentally friendly industries which benefit from the areas abundant sources of energy.
The Shams Ma'an Project, a 100MW photovoltaic (PV) power plant spread across 2 million square meters located in the southern part of Jordan within MDA's Industrial Park, will utilize approximately 360000 to 2 million PV/CPV panels (depending on the technology), producing around 168 GWh per year and preventing around 160000 tons of CO2 emission. The project is expected to be carried out within four phases, evaluation, pilot, feasibility study and finally implementation upon reaching an agreement with the government at which time the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2012 going into its production phase. When materialized in 2012, the estimated $400 million project is expected to be the largest PV plant in the world, and will position Jordan on the global renewable energy map attracting investments, technologies and knowhow.
