Ammon News - Though Jordan's energy sector strategy announced in 2020 set a goal to raise percentage of renewable energy contribution in electricity generation at 31% by 2030, the Kingdom is continuing efforts to hopefully increase this rate to 50%, Secretary-General of Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Amani Azzam, said on Wednesday.

Azzam's remarks came while delivering Jordan's speech, a co-president of Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) at opening of the annual meeting of UfM energy platforms, which began its activities in the Spanish city of Barcelona today.

"Jordan is currently revisiting its comprehensive strategy for the energy sector to achieve the new target, and working to support transformation projects towards electric transmission and green hydrogen production," Azzam said, citing an Energy Ministry statement.

Jordan, she noted, begun to implement the required technical, legislative and strategic steps in this field.

Jordan, while striving to achieve this goal, takes into account strengthening of its electrical network and enhancing its stability by shifting towards smart grids, establishing projects to store electric energy, and implementing and expanding electrical interconnection projects with neighboring countries and the world, Azzam noted.

Time, she noted, has come to "optimally" benefit from all available tools and technologies to overcome technical challenges of renewable energy.

Highlighting achievements of Jordan's energy sector, she said the Kingdom's solar and wind energy projects to generate electricity amounted to about 2.6 gigawatts, which contributed to production of approximately 27% of the total electrical energy consumed in the Kingdom.

Contribution of renewable energy to the total electrical energy consumption did not exceed 1% until 2014, and gradually increased, she said.

Due to this achievement, Jordan, according to 2022 Arab Future Energy Index (AFEX), which was prepared by the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE), ranked first in the region in terms of the installed capacity of renewable energy sources to generate electricity, without hydropower, Azzam pointed out.