EBRD leads financing for $185m Jordanian wind farm

The development bank was joined by Proparco and DEG Invest in providing debt for the 86MW power plant.

An 86MW wind farm in Jordan has reached financial close after securing a $139.4 million debt package from three European development institutions.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development led the financing with a $70 million loan, supplemented by $50 million from Proparco, the French Development Agency subsidiary, and a further $19.4 million from KfW affiliate DEG Invest.

The Al Rajef project will be developed by Green Watts Renewable Energy, an affiliate of Dubai-based developer Alacazar Energy which counts the International Finance Corporation and fund manager Mubadala Infrastructure Partners among its investors.

Al Rajef is one of four renewable energy projects developed or under development by Alacazar. The company is also working on a wind farm in Turkey and two wind and solar facilities in Egypt.

The project is the first wind farm to be developed under round one of Jordan's renewable energy feed-in tariff programme, launched in 2011. Al Rajef is set to be the country’s second-largest wind farm after the 117MW Tafila project owned by InfraMed, Masdar and EP Global Energy.

“Jordan is facing a serious challenge” to meet sustainable electricity demands, said Nandita Parshad, EBRD’s director for power and energy. She added that the bank intends to make further steps to finance the country’s energy sector “in the near future”.