Oman- The dispute between renewable energy investors in Jordan and the government has entered an advanced stage after the Ministry of Energy and the Jordan Regulatory Commission approved a new law that angered investors who organized a sit-in in front of the commission on Thursday morning to protest the law.
Regarding the objectives of the sit-in, which was surrounded by dozens of security personnel, the spokesman for the renewable energy companies, Engineer Mohammed Al-Shakhatra, said that it aims to pressure the government to back down on the new energy law, which is unfair to investors.
He added – in his interview with Al Jazeera Net – that the wording of the new law is contradictory and does not serve citizens and commercial sectors, with the exception of the Jordanian Electricity Company.
Al-Shakhatra explained that the companies working in the field of renewable energy exceed 498 companies, and that the workers in the sector exceed 20 thousand workers, including electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, renewable energy engineers, and workers.
He stressed that the sit-ins will not stop until the government reverses its new decisions related to the renewable energy law, and said that the new law hinders investment in renewable energy, especially for commercial sectors.
According to the new law, the electricity company charges 13 dinars ($18.4) for every kilowatt hour if there is a small shop with an electricity bill of 200 dinars ($282.2).
If he wants to install a system that covers a bill of 200 dinars, he pays a tax to the electricity company of 130 dinars in addition to 13 dinars in fees from the original 200 dinar bill.
According to the old law there is no tax.
Promote investment
For his part, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Dr. Saleh Al-Kharabsheh, stressed that investing in alternative energy would achieve security and sustainability of energy sources, noting that the new renewable energy system does not hinder investment, but rather enhances it.
The Minister explained – during a meeting he held with media representatives – that the system for regulating the connection of renewable energy source facilities to the electrical system and exempting renewable energy source systems and rationalizing energy consumption for the year 2024, which was recently issued in the Official Gazette, included a set of measures and procedures to support and direct investments in the areas of improving energy efficiency and storage.
The protesters issued a statement on Thursday, a copy of which was received by Al Jazeera Net, in which they confirmed that “the Ministry of Energy, as usual, resorted to the easiest option, which is the pockets of citizens, at the expense of Jordanian investors from all commercial sectors.”
The statement added that these sectors “were deprived of using the sun to save electricity costs, which contributes to strengthening the financial capacity of companies, and contributes to feeding the economic wheel and the purchasing power of citizens.”
The statement said, “The government resorted to eliminating the solar energy sector, which employs more than 20,000 workers, to achieve financial savings worth 93 million dinars to mitigate the losses of the National Electricity Company, which has a legacy of debt accumulated in the billions over decades.”
The number of Jordanian families using smart applications for renewable energy and energy efficiency is 81,694 families. The increasing demand for renewable energy sources – whether thermal, such as solar heaters, or electrical, such as photovoltaic panels – is due to the high prices of electricity or fossil fuels, as electricity prices in Jordan are the highest in the Arab world.
