EJREC was a two-day event that was held in Amman during the 1st & 2nd of April 2009 under the royal patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah II, deputized by HRH Prince Hamzah bin Al Hussein. EJREC was organized by the Jordan Europe Business Association (JEBA), in partnership with the European Union and in association with the University of Jordan

EJREC drew national, regional and international attention to Jordan’s renewable energy market of opportunities. Top government officials gave in-depth insight and analysis into the current investment climate in the country and the latest developments in promoting an investor friendly business and legislative environment with special focus on renewable energy.

Over 300 delegates representing, academia, business, government and NGOs, in addition to a group of high caliber Jordanian, European and regional renewable energy experts attended the conference, which gave them a unique opportunity to exchange views and strengthen professional ties.

Being held in Jordan, at the heart of the Middle East, EJREC highlighted some of the major challenges facing the country. Jordan is a non-oil producing country that imports 96% of its energy needs costing more than 20% of the country’s GNP. In order to overcome these overwhelming challenges, the government of Jordan developed a comprehensive energy strategy through the Royal Advisory Committee on the Energy Sector in December 2007. According to the new strategy the total anticipated investment in the energy sector is expected to reach $15 billion by 2020.

The current energy mix shows that only 4% is supplied from local sources and the strategy envisages the local content to increase to 39% by 2020 out of which 10% should come from Renewable energy.

In order to achieve such an ambitious target a new Energy and Minerals Law including Renewable energy has been drafted and submitted to parliament for ratification and endorsement. The new law offers fiscal incentives and encourages independent power producing projects to generate electricity on BOO & BOT basis (Wind park projects to generate a minimum of 600 MW of electricity and Solar farms to generate a minimum of 600 MW by 2020).