Masdar Jordan

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IFC is considering providing an A-loan of up to $70 million and mobilizing further funding via B-loans to support the construction, operation, and maintenance of a $280 million greenfield 200 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) power project near Amman in Jordan. The project is being developed by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC - Masdar (“Masdar” or the “Developer”), which is 100% owned by the Mubadala Development Company, an investment development company that is in turn 100 % owned by the Government of Abu Dhabi. Masdar is developing the project through special purpose vehicle Baynouna Solar Energy Company (“Baynouna” or the “Company”). Masdar is also a shareholder in the IFC-financed Tafila Wind Power Project in Jordan, the ESRS for which, disclosed in January 2013, can be found here:https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/projectDetail/ESRS/31627The E&S performance of this investment based on recent IFC supervision records has been satisfactory.The project will be an independent power plant and will supply 200MW to the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) grid under a 20-year power purchase agreement. Financial close is expected the summer of 2017 and construction is currently expected to start during Summer 2017 and to last for 18-24 months. The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor has not yet been selected. The project will consist of PV modules installed on a single axis tracker. Power will be sent to inverter stations (~39) connected to the grid via a substation which will step up the 33 kilovolts (kV) voltage into 132 kV. The output from the substation will be fed into the national grid through a new 132 kV NEPCO transmission line linked to an existing NEPCO substation 10 km from the project site. The project will require about 300 workers at peak construction and about 20-30 full time staff during operation. No worker camp is envisaged during construction, with workers being either sourced locally or accommodated in nearby hotels and guesthouses. The project is located in the Tilal Al-Rukban area in Muwaqqar district in the Amman governorate, about 30 km north of the Jordanian capital Amman. It will occupy a 600-hectare plot on government-owned land subject to a land-lease agreement. The site is located on the Jordan Highland Plateau at an altitude of approximately 800-840 meters above sea level. The site is undulating and carved by a series of wadis; it consists of stony soil cover with very little vegetation cover most of the year except in shallow depressions and wadis. There are no permanent dwellings in the project area, with the nearest populated areas including Al-Maghayer village (8.5 km away) and Muwaqqar City (12 km away). There are signs of limited seasonal use of the site for forage cultivation purposes, as is the case across the landscape: nomadic Bedouins pass through the area periodically, sowing fodder grass over extensive areas to support their livestock after the rains. These herders cross large parts of Jordan and will be able to continue accessing significant areas of undeveloped land around the project site once it is constructed. Other nearby land uses include a conventional power plant 4.5 km to the north west, a cattle farm 3 km to the north and a small fertilizer company 200 m away.