Earlier this year, we had the privilege of engaging in an insightful conversation with Hanna Zaghoul, the visionary CEO of Kawar Energy, an esteemed eco-friendly project developer established in Jordan back in 2008. In an exclusive interview with MED-GEM Network, Zaghoul shared his profound expertise, shedding light on the company's dedicated focus on renewable energy and solar power, emphasizing Jordan's pivotal role in sustainable development, job creation, and technological advancement within the dynamic landscape of its energy sector.

🎥 Watch the interview on Youtube

Speaking about energy transition and independence, what opportunities does green hydrogen technology present for Jordan ?

With the workshop focusing on green hydrogen, with MED-GEM, it's a step actually in the right direction to open the eyes for the Jordanian, especially the Jordanian government of how they can take advantage of the green hydrogen opportunity that's actually taking place in the world. And how can this be part of the energy transition for Jordan.

As we know, Jordan imports most of its energy resources, and the abundant resource that we have today is the sun and its radiation. And that brings in a great opportunity for Jordan to be energy independent. And it's through that bringing the new technology that will come with the green hydrogen or renewable energy, and it will open up for Jordan Markets that's not been there in terms of exporting the green hydrogen or green ammonia, creating jobs, enhancing the economy, and energy independence for Jordan.

What are the main challenges that Jordan faces in developing green hydrogen?

In terms of the challenges that we are facing in Jordan today, because green hydrogen is not new in the world platform, but for green hydrogen, it's new and needs certain types of conditions that will support it, similar to the legal framework and also the collaboration with the government, especially that the government in the green hydrogen is not going to be playing the role of the off-taker as much as we either use the green hydrogen for the local industries or even to use it for export.

So what’s the role of the government in this model?

In my view, the government should be the platform that will help in terms of developing the infrastructure and developing the infrastructure in terms of having allocated the land, allocating the right of way for the grid from the solar power plants' generation into the electrolyzers into the water desalinization, the intake of water from the sea and water desalination, the treatment of the brine and also helping and supporting these companies that want to develop green hydrogen in opening up the market, the international market for them, based on a government-to-government type of interaction, in addition to seeing how they can be supportive in bringing low-cost financing for these projects from the international community, such as the EU, that's been very supportive for Jordan and such as the programs the European Union has been supporting Jordan and the USAID as well.

What is Needed for the development of successful green hydrogen projects in Jordan ?

For us to be able to develop a successful project, we're not going to be playing alone or developing that project alone, there has to be partners with us. One of the main partners, especially with Jordan, is the government, and its partnership comes from laying down the rules, the legal frameworks, let's say, the infrastructure, but also the financing partners that need to be able to support us and help us to see that the support that the green hydrogen can be supported with off-takers in Europe.

In that sense, in addition, also, let's say, the academia, the academia, because we need the proper engineers in order to run to maintain to operate these plants and we have to build their capacity. So additionally, also, you need the ministries in different types of acts, the Ministry of Environment to be able to support to give the licenses for how to treat the prime, also, the Ministry of Transportation, in order to be able to transport the green hydrogen. So all these they're going to be playing together in putting up and supporting each other to bring the project into successful fruition.

I have always looked at the European as a great supporter for Jordan. And frankly, I always say to my Jordanian colleagues, the Europeans see more value in our location than what we see in ourselves. And we are not taking advantage of that because they are ready to help and support, not just in transferring the technology and the know-how, the knowledge, the experience, but also to help us in making these projects a reality. Supporting us through the governments with giving of funds and donations that will be able to help and support building up the capacity. So they play a very crucial role and they've been pushing the Jordanian government and supporting the Jordanian government to go into renewable energy and green hydrogen, of course, because of their needs. At the end of the day, they need that energy also and they need to get it from a place that's secure and stable. And Jordan is a very stable country. It's very secure and trustworthy to do business with. And they see all that value in addition to the natural resources that we have that they can tap on.

How do you perceive Jordan's role, opportunities and potential contributions in its immediate surroundings and broader regional context?

Jordan can play a very pivotal role in the region and frankly, they can take advantage of that. Today, Jordan sits in the middle of turmoil, a place, I mean, all the countries around that they have so many issues, but if you look at Jordan, Jordan is very stable and people they trust, trust the king and the government and they collaborate with each other on actually keeping Jordan stable.

Now, Jordan because of its location and proximity to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and also this region is proximity to Europe can play a role where it can be the interchange, the clearing house for electricity. If we have a proper connection with all these countries.

Similarly, they can do that with the gas. Similarly, they can do that with the hydrogen. So if we build a strong platform for hydrogen and hydrogen pipeline in the region that we can actually take these pipelines into Cyprus, Cyprus into Europe from there and take it and Europe can benefit from that, the electricity also we can do electric grid lines from Jordan renewable energy probably go to Israel, Israel to Cyprus and then go into Europe.

So there is a lot of things that can be done and Jordan can take advantage of. And recently, if you heard about Biden and his plan to build the route from India all the way to Europe and Jordan can take advantage of that route not just in building, you know, a route for transporting the goods or what have we, but also transporting energy, electricity, internet, you name it. It can be capitalized on that as well.

So in my view, this is the moment for Jordan to pick up and take advantage of that because the trust that people have in Jordan, I mean, look, all the countries in Europe, they trust Jordan very well. The America they trust Jordan extremely great. Even our enemies next to us, they trust us in that sense. And I hope that we can keep this trust alive and people can support us in that and build a better Jordan for everybody.