Making the desert bloom

Unable to rely on neighbours’ supplies, Jordan wants renewables, gas and kerogen to secure its energy

THE inauguration in April of an 80-megawatt wind farm in Ma'an, 225km south of Amman, marked another step forward in Jordan's plan to diversify its sources of energy and trim its dependence on imported hydrocarbons. There was a time when Jordan compensated for the lack of its own reserves by importing subsidised oil from Iraq and buying natural gas via the Arab Gas Pipeline from Egypt. But since 2003 and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime it has received no oil from Iraq and after the uprising in Egypt in 2011 the gas supply was cut repeatedly, before stopping altogether. Jordan needs alternatives. The absence of Egyptian gas required the costly import of further volumes of oil for ele