Millennium Energy Industries Receives US Government Funding for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Project
Amman, Jordan – Millennium Energy Industries (MEI), a regional leader in integrated solar solutions, today signed a grant agreement with the U.S. Trade and Development Agency granting MEI the sum of $738,000 to support a feasibility study for a 100 MW concentrated solar power (CSP) project that will be implemented in the Ma’an industrial estate in partnership with the Ma’an Development Company (MDC) and U.S. technology provider eSolar, Inc.
Mr. Ennis Rimawi, chairman of MEI and Managing Partner of Catalyst Private Equity (the majority owner of MEI), and Ms. Taraneh Bastani, USTDA (Jordan) Country Manager signed the agreement in the presence of Mr. Mohammed Turk, CEO of the Ma’an Development Company.
MDC, owned by the King Abdullah Fund for Development, have made solar energy a priority in their development plans recognizing the high solar resource that Ma’an area offers, and solar energy’s promise to support the country’s growing energy needs that are being fulfilled by imported fuels.
The feasibility study that will be awarded to a U.S. contractor will assess the techno-economic of the eSolar modular and scalable concentrating solar thermal power plants, and best strategy to implement a 100MW in partnership with the government of Jordan and other regional and international private and public sector organizations. “We believe that eSolar has the lowest price point in CSP today, and is providing a logical and efficient technology that has been proven,” said Ennis Rimawi, citing the 5MW pilot project inaugurated by eSolar in Lancaster, California on August 5th, 2009 and other agreements that eSolar signed in the US with NRG Energy and in India with the ACME group for a combined total project pipeline of 1500MW. The feasibility study will be based on eSolar’s standard 46 MW design package.
Earlier this year, MEI and MDC have implemented various joint activities to promote solar energy development activities at the vocational training centers, Al Hussein University, and the industrial estate where several projects have been implemented successfully.
With this feasibility study, MEI and its partners aim to catalyze the development of a CSP project that maximize its contribution to the local economy while establishing a spring board for other CSP projects in the region.
About Millennium Energy Industries
MEI was founded in 2002 by a shared vision between scientific and business minded pioneers with the objective of serving the solar energy needs of the region utilizing best in class proven technology for solar thermal and power. Today, MEI is an is nternational regional company, based in Amman-Jordan and operating in the Arab MENA region, with over 200 reference solar energy projects in more than ten countries.
MEI is majority owned by Catalyst Private Equity, a regional Venture Capital firm based in Jordan. MEI’s core products and services include solar thermal applications for residential, commercial and industrial clients, solar cooling and solar power.
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