(Australia-NewsWire.Com, November 12, 2012 ) Victoria, Australia- Regulations to make solar water heating mandatory for every new residence in Jordan will be introduced in April of 2013. The country’s rooftops and side yards will capitalize on the nearly 330 days of sunshine they receive every year, similar to Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel. Private houses bigger than 250 square meters and office spaces bigger than 100 square meters must also comply with the country’s new regulations.
To ease people into the solar switch, the Ministry of Energy and the Jordan River Foundation has teamed up to offer over $1.8 million in loans to buy and install the necessary equipment.
Minister of Energy, Alaa Batayneh, also confirmed that the new regulations will give citizens and businesses the opportunity to sell extra solar power back to the natural grid. The surplus will most likely come from homes and businesses that set up solar voltaic panels because solar hot water heaters use thermal energy to heat water, but do not create electricity.
“Under this decision, private citizens, businesses and hotels can sell [up to 5 MW of surplus power] directly to public electric utilities and we believe that this is a big step forward for the renewable energy sector,” said the Minister, according to The Jordan Times.
Together, the Electricity Regulatory Commission and the Jordan Electricity Distribution Company will set the price for citizen-sourced power, but Minister Batayneh said the rate will be set at “current generation costs”.
Common units consist of a solar collector with a water storage tank right above the panel as domestic water heating makes ample use of solar power. Hot water rises to a roof-mounted storage tank through natural thermosiphoning and no mechanical pumping is required whatsoever.
Despite affordable technology and abundant sunshine, Jordan’s use of solar water heating has been declining. Industry experts are blaming slow adoption of this simple solar system on inadequate building regulations around the country.
The new measures are seen as a government attempt to revive the Kingdom’s switch to renewable energy.
The renewable energy law also offers incentives for investments in solar as well as wind energy projects. The goal is to have renewable sources account for 10% of Jordan’s energy mix within eight years.
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