Jordan is pressing ahead with its first electricity storage project to bolster its expansion in solar and wind generation. The Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Saleh Al Kharabsheh has announced that the Middle Eastern kingdom expects to sign a contract for a 30-megawatt battery in the third quarter. Jordan is seeking to beat its own 2020 targets, which was previously at 10 percent, and is now aiming to produce 25 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2020, Kharabsheh declared in Energy Transition Forum in Berlin. The country’s focus on renewables stems from its lack of oil and gas reserves compared to its neighbours and its dependence to imported energy. Jordan is also one of the most water-stressed nations in the world, so a steady supply of green energy will help ease the cost of pumping water, which takes up about 15 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product each year. With costs of producing power from sun and wind falling, the next step is storage, Al Karabsheh said. – Bloomberg