International Conference and Exhibition on Green Energy & Sustainability for Arid Regions & Mediterranean Countries (ICEGES 2009) Le Royal Hotel Amman, Jordan June, 15-17 2009 INVESTIGATION OF WIND ENERGY IN JORDAN Mohammad Ababneh 1 , Wisam Kakish 2 , Omar Abu Mohareb 3 , and Issa Etier 4 1 Department of Mechatronics Engineering, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan 2 Design Department, National Electric Power Company, Amman, Jordan 3 Department of Automotive Mechatronics, Institute of Internal Combustion Engines, Stuttgart, Germany 4 Department of Electrical Engineering, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan 1 (ababneh@hu.edu.jo ) ABSTRACT This paper investigates the status of wind energy in Jordan and illustrates the number and the type of the operating wind farms and its share in the total generated power. In addition, it elaborates on the advantages and disadvantages of using wind energy in electrical power generation. Attention is especially drawn to the setting of ambitious targets as well as successful implementation strategies for using wind energy. KEY WORDS Wind energy, wind farm, power generation, clean environment, green energy, Jordan. 1. Introduction Jordan imports approximately ninety seven percent of its primary energy, of which thirty percent is used to generate electrical energy [1]. Renewable-energy sources are becoming more and more attractive especially with the great uncertainty of oil prices. Also, studies show that the oil depletion point has been reached in 2006 [2]. This is a direct result of consuming oil much faster than it is naturally produced. Since formation of new petroleum is a complicated geological process takes millions of years. In addition, energy demands are increasing at alarming rate as shown for example for the electrical energy in Jordan in figure 1 [3: 10]. In the last two decades, the steep development in the industrial, tourism services, commercial and population sectors in Jordan increased such increase in electrical energy demands. For example, the maximum demand of the electrical power at the evening periods in April, 2007 was 1715 MW with 14.33% more than April, 2006. These imposed extra efforts on the electrical energy supplier to meet the maximum required power demands that increase annually by 3.5% [3]. 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 GWh Electricity production in Jordan Figure 1: Electricity production in Jordan Since fossil fuel resources discovered locally are limited and most of the electrical energy in Jordan is generated using imported oil and gas; the Jordanian government gave a special attention towards renewable energy, especially the wind energy. In 1987, an intensive program was created to motivate using wind energy in electrical energy production. Nowadays, eight wind energy stations are used in different locations distributed from north to south. Only two of them are connected to the main power grid. All these stations were funded and constructed by foreign donations. The ambitious Jordanian wind energy program collides with many obstacles; especially high initial and production cost, low quality of produced power and low reliability. These obstacles inhibited the zeal toward using wind energy and forced power producers to find other solutions to meet the increasing power demands; like power tie lines with Egypt and Syria. Even the alternative solutions used to meet the highly increasing demand on electrical energy have their own disadvantages. These disadvantages gave a new hope for the wind energy to be again a possible solution for the power energy increasing demand in Jordan. In this paper, a set of recommendations are introduced to customize