Petra Solar recently presented the kingdom of Jordan with a strategic plan to help the country increase its use of renewables and reduce the use of imported oil and natural gas to produce its electricity. The sun-rich, oil-poor Middle Eastern country is looking to increase the amount of renewable energy it produces from roughly 2 percent to 10 percent within a decade.

Petra is the company that’s developed the distributed generation photovoltaics on utility poles that are now helping New Jersey’s Public Service Electric and Gas Co. understand the effects of distributed generation on a wide scale. It’s now doing a trial of its new 230-volt, utility-pole-mounted solar modules in Australia with Ergon Energy, said Petra spokesperson Mary Grikas.

“One of the things that we’re proponents of is using existing assets [like utility poles and rooftops],” she said. “It’s quicker to deploy solar that way.”

“In Jordan we would do a combination of rooftop and solar telephone poles,” she said. Petra Solar presented its Let Jordan Shine plan at the Jordan-U.S. Business Forum held in late May. “They’re really still working on their energy policy. Right now in Jordan they have very little coming from renewables.”

The country does not produce any oil. The supply pipeline used to come from Egypt, but it was cut off when the line was severed by an explosion, she said.

“When you look at solar, it’s a cost-effective solution for them,” she said. “They’re also really struggling with water supplies, so any energy that doesn’t need water is welcome.”

The plan, while it definitely includes Petra products, isn’t specific to the company.

“Like any company, we’re looking for an opportunity for our growth. But it’s really a national plan for renewables that’s open to any solar developer,” Grikas said.

The plan was developed from a purely educational standpoint, she said.

While Jordan isn’t an oil-rich country and is looking at renewables to reduce imports, even oil-rich neighbors are looking into renewables, according to Grikas. That way, they’ll have more oil to sell to those countries that need it.