The Solar Thermal Applications workshop 24 - 25 March, 2009

1. NERC – Jordan
Solar Water Heaters in
Jordan
Eng. Samar Jaber

2. Energy Situation in Jordan
Energy Resources:
► Most of Jordan’s Energy
Requirements are Imported
► Natural Gas is utilized for Power
Generation
► Wind Energy (for power generation &
water pumping)
► Solar Energy (electricity for remote areas
& hot water)
► Oil Shale is available in huge
quantities

3. Energy Consumption ( Tones )
Transport 1,822,000 (37%)
Industry 1,846,000 (24%)
Household 1,064,000 (22% )
Others 821,000 (17 %)

4. Fils/liter
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
0
1960
1962
1964
1966
Kerosene-Fils/Liter
Diesel - Fils/Liter
1968
1970
1 JD =1.41 USD
1 JD =1000 Fils
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
Fuel Prices
1984
1986
1988
LPG
Heavy Fuel Oil-JD/ton
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2005
2007 Feb
2007 May
2007 sep
2008 Mar
2008 Jun
2008 Aug
2008 Oct
2008 Dec
2009 Feb
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
LPG JD / 12.5 kg

5. 5.5 kWh/m2 day
182 liters / year

6. Solar Water Heater Story in Jordan
1970 RSS designed and produced
pilot systems.
1973 Two local workshops
produce 50 units a year
1986 12% of all dwellings in
Jordan use solar water heaters.
1992 more than 20% of all houses
in Jordan use solar water heaters
(about 158,700 units)
2002 25 workshop and factories
producing 4,000 units annually
(17,000 m2 of solar collectors) for
local market and export to
neighboring countries.

7. Solar Thermal Systems
Flat plate collectors

8. Jordan dairy factory solar water
heating system in Russeifa

9. Solar Thermal Systems
Vacuum tubes technology
were introduced recently
in Jordan (2006)
Vacuum tubes collectors
are not technically
evaluated yet.
More than 20 suppliers

10. American Jordanian Company for Apparel

11. Available Collector in Jordan
According to EN 12975-2
0.9
0.8 G = 800 W/m2
0.7
V-German
0.6
Efficiency
0.5 V-Chinese
F-Aus&Ger
0.4 F-French
F-Russian
0.3 L. scale V-Chinese
0.2
0.1 F- RSS
0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
dT/G

12. Total Area Installed of Solar Collectors
Flat Plate Vacuum
Collector (m2) Tubular (m2)
Private households 660,000 10,500
Hotel 82,000 ---------
Industrial 82,000 1,500
The total solar thermal capacity of 196 MWth is installed

13. Yearly Market Share
Flat Plate Type Vacuum Tubular
(m2/a) Type (m2/a)
Produced Solar 6,262 --------
Thermal Collector
Import and Sell 1,404 3,500
Solar Thermal
Collector

14. Solar Thermal Applications
•Water heating for domestic, commercial and
industrial applications.
•Solar space heating and cooling.
•Heating of outdoor and indoor swimming pools.
•Electric power generation by using CSP.
•Desalination of sea water and brackish water.
•Solar cookers.
•Drying crops.

15. Feasibility of Solar Thermal System
Conventional Heater payback period Life Cycle Saving
Electrical Heater 1.8 5,892 JD
(Efficiency =90%)
Diesel Oil 3.7 2,076 JD
(Efficiency =59%)
LPG 3.8 2,047 JD
(Efficiency =70%)

17. Potential Fields of Application
Low temperature level Swimming Pool Heating
T<60° C: Domestic Hot water
Under floor heating
Medium temperature Space heating
level 60<T<250 Air Conditioning
High temperature level Air Conditioning
250<T Desalination
Electricity Generation

18. Potential Fields of Application
Hot water preparation -Residential Sector 1.1 GWth
Space Heating – Residential Sector 16 GWth
Large Scale 137.5 MWth

19. Major Barriers
Policy barriers
Absence of regulations, rules and energy provisions to
control the quality and the effectiveness of the locally
manufactured, imported or used equipment.

20. Consumption Forecast of the Primary
Energy When Applying the RE & EE

21. Saving in Primary Energy

22. Major Barriers
Technical barriers
• Absence of professional calculation tools or
technical handbooks for design and sizing of large
solar systems.
• Absence of compulsory testing regulations that
forces the manufacturers and importers to test their
collectors, although a national testing facility to test
solar collectors exist at the RSS.
• High cost of high specification materials/component
such as double-glazing, selective coating material,
sheet metal, pipes. This results in hindering the
development of designs and quality.
• Hard Water, water freezing in the pipes of collectors
in cold regions.

23. The height of the bottom of the storage tank is
beneath the collectors water outlet.

24. A SWH system installed near a chimney that
contaminates the system with soot and other
combustion gases.

25. A SWH system installed in front of a high climbing
plants.

26. Obstacles Shading
1m

27. Solar collectors placed directly on the roof surface

28. Large scale corrosion in the bottom of an absorber
plate where the collectors are installed directly on
the roof surface

29. A SWH installed without consideration to safety
measure and easy maintenance

30. Orienting SWH collectors in arbitrary directions

31. West

33. Major Barriers
Market barriers
• Lack of incentives & financing options.
• The majority of manufacturers are located in
Amman which makes it difficult and more
expensive for people living in other cities to install
solar collectors and have periodic maintenance
Social barriers
Recently, most of the buildings are multi-floor within
small floor area. The floor area is usually used for
many purposes such as, water tanks, dishes ….. etc,
therefore, there is no enough space for installing
solar water heating systems for all residence.

34. RESULTS
The penetration of solar thermal technology to the
market can be achieved by the following:
Modifying the existing solar system through transfer
of EU technological know-how.
Enhancing of awareness of using the solar systems.
Incentives for using the solar systems, such as
decreasing the taxes and customs on imported solar
system and on the materials that are used in local
manufacturing of the solar systems.
Implementation of norms, standards and certification
schemes

35. Next Steps
1. Proper Financing Schemes
2. Risk Mitigation: can be achieved through a
regional marking program similar to the
European Solar Keymark.
3. Implementation of regulations, rules and energy
provisions to control the quality and the
effectiveness of the locally manufactured,
imported collectors.

36. Thank You
Samar J. Jaber
Rational Use of Energy & Solar Thermal Division
National Energy Research Center
P.O.Box 1945, Amman11941, Jordan
Phone: 962-6-5344701 ext 2704
Mobile: 962-79- 5255213
Fax: 962-6-5338043
www.nerc.gov.jo