Jordan Government Approves Construction of Power Plant Co-Owned by Eesti Energia
The government of Jordan signed a deal with the Attarat Power Company (APCO), co-owned by Estonian state-owned energy giant Eesti Energia, to construct a 554 megawatt oil shale power plant and to purchase electricity from the plant for the next 30 years.
“With the signing of the electricity purchase agreement the Jordan electricity project has entered a final stretch,” Eesti Energia CEO Sandor Liive said, adding that the next step is to sort out financing and begin construction in 2015.
Estonian Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi said Estonia is exporting know-how to Jordan. “Thanks to Estonians, Jordan will have the capability to produce electricity from local resources in a few years, and decrease energy dependence from neighboring countries,” he said.
Liive said they will sell electricity to Jordan at half the price of current rates in the nation. The current price is around 150 euros per megawatt/hour. The price in Estonia is usually between 30 and 50 euros MWh.
Jordan has one of the world's largest stock piles of oil shale, estimated at between 30 and 70 billion tons, dwarfing Estonia's reserves, which Eesti Energia calculates at between 1 and 2 billion tons.
The construction cost is estimated to be around 2.2 billion USD (1.75 billion euros). Around 75 percent of that will come from loans, but the company will have to find the rest. Eesti Energia currently own 65 percent of APCO, and could sell a part to fund its commitment.