December 14th, 201612:00pm
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a $95mn loan for the construction of a 485 MW modern gas-fired power plant in Jordan costing $460mn.
The loan - billed as reducing emissions by the bank -- will be provided to a Jordanian firm that is 60%-owned by the Saudi developer ACWA Power -- which a few days ago committed to building a giant coal-fired plant in Dubai.
The new Zarqa combined-cycle gas turbine plant in Jordan, 40km northeast of the capital Amman, will replace an obsolete oil-fired plant at the same site and be twice as efficient and cut emissions. It is needed to stabilise the Jordanian grid as older plants are decommissioned and as demand increases.
The first gas turbines for the largest order in Siemens' history have started their journey to Egypt. Two turbines for the Beni Suef power plant project will be loaded onto a barge at the Berlin Westhafen port, from where they will be shipped to the Rotterdam seaport. Via the Port of Adabiya on the Red Sea the 890-ton cargo will then be transported to Beni Suef. By comparison, an empty Airbus A380 has a weight of 277 metric tons. The gas turbines are scheduled to be installed in the power plant in mid-May.
The two SGT5-8000H gas turbines will begin their three-month trip at Berlin Westhafen and will end it at the Beni Suef power plant project situated around 110 kilometers south of Cairo. The machines, which each measure 12.6 meters long, 5.5 meters high and 5.5 meters wide, will be loaded into a barge with the aid of two cranes and first shipped to the Port of Rotterdam. In this seaport, the two gas turbines will be loaded onto the "Wiebke" heavy load carrier with the ship's onboard cranes. The ship will travel from Rotterdam to the Mediterranean Sea across the Strait of Gibraltar. The cargo arrives at the destination port of Adabiya on the Red Sea, passing through the Suez Canal. A 40-axle trailer will transport the turbines the rest of the way, traveling the 250-kilometer route along the Nile to Beni Suef in about five days.
