Kharabsheh, HU sign MoU to address Jordan’s energy challenges

Amman: Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Dr. Saleh Kharabsheh, on Wednesday stressed role of Jordan's universities and research centers in developing the Kingdom's energy and mining sectors. Kharabsheh made the remarks during the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with President of the Hashemite University (HU), Dr. Khaled Hiyari, in the training and expertise exchange fields. Kharabsheh said the Kingdom's universities must have a role in the energy transition, green hydrogen projects, and the mining sector, which would hopefully develop and expand exploitation of mineral raw materials. To date, the minister noted development in Jordan's mining field has been "limited" to exploitation of phosphate and potash ore, referring to "increasing" global demand today for minerals used in clean energy technologies to achieve sustainable development goals and carbon neutrality. Kharabsheh also noted the gap in cooperation among Jordan's academic and research institutions and government d epartments to serve the various sectors by preparing research studies to meet needs of public entities in implementing their plans and projects. In this regard, he expressed the ministry's readiness to cooperate with Jordan's universities to serve common interests. For his part, Hiyari said the university's partnership with the public and private sectors is a "shared responsibility' has a "positive" nature to train students, faculty members, and technicians to gain expertise, which is reflected in the outputs quality. Hiyari said the HU is the first Jordanian university to start renewable energy projects, as its solar power plant contributed to reduce costs of electrical energy, and provided training for students, researchers and partners on real systems. According to the memo, cooperation aspects aim to establish joint scientific collaboration activities, exchange knowledge and scientific visits, implement training programs and develop scientific competencies. The memo also seeks to exchange scientific, research and technical results, information and documents, and direct students' graduation projects and Master's theses to find solutions to Jordan's energy challenges. Source: Jordan News Agency