Khaberni - The Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources/Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Fund, Saleh Al-Kharabsheh, and the Vice President of the Jordan Hotels Association Board, Osama Madanat, signed a cooperation agreement on Thursday to implement a comprehensive program for energy conservation and efficiency.
The agreement aims to increase the competitiveness of hotels and the tourism sector by reducing operating costs, including energy costs. The program includes conducting energy audit studies for hotel facilities and implementing the outputs of these studies.
Al-Kharabsheh confirmed that the Fund continues its efforts in implementing its future projects in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency in all vital sectors including the residential, tourism, education, industrial, municipal, and hospital sectors, as well as implementing specialized training programs in renewable energy, contributing to achieving the Kingdom's goals in energy and sustainable development.
He pointed out that there is a significant opportunity for economic and service establishments in both the public and private sectors to conserve energy, stating that studies conducted by the Fund indicate that Jordan's energy intensity indicator is significantly high, exceeding the global average by 20-25%, emphasizing that implementing energy conservation and preservation measures comes first before installing renewable energy systems, as their costs are lower and their investment return period does not exceed four years.
Madanat praised the comprehensive program offered by the Energy Fund to support the hotel sector, which will significantly contribute to reducing energy costs for hotels that have recently been affected by the regional events that have occurred.
He mentioned that the Hotels Association will cooperate with the Fund to reach all hotels and market this important program in all governorates, as energy audit studies will greatly contribute to achieving cost reduction and energy conservation, directly reflecting on providing better services to citizens.
The Executive Director of the Fund, Rasmi Hamza, said that this agreement translates the Fund's vision to expand its programs to include the tourism sector, considering it one of the pillars of the national economy, and clarified that the Fund will bear 100% of the cost of energy audit studies, in addition to supporting bank interest and guaranteeing loans for the costs of implementing recommendations and outputs of the study.
Hamza drew attention to the success of the previous phases that were implemented, which included Petra and Aqaba, where the desired results were achieved and the savings percentage on the bill cost ranged between 40-60%, which contributed to increasing the competitiveness of these hotels and reducing energy costs.
