Jordan is pushing ahead with ambitious plans to switch 20 percent of its power consumption to green energy by 2020.

The math is actually pretty easy - the Middle Eastern country has 300 sunny days a year, but currently imports 97 percent of its energy needs.  That needed to change.

"We have excellent (solar) radiation that helps generate more energy and electricity out of the plants," says Kawar Energy CEO Hanna Zaghloul, who heads a company with about 200 solar developments to its name.  "But what's really more important is the legal framework that we have developed in Jordan which attracts investors and the government's actual commitment to renewable energy."

More and more solar cells are appearing on roofs throughout the country, augmenting the Shams Ma'an Power Plant, the second largest solar farm in the region with 640,000 panels spread out over two square kilometers of desert land in the Southern city of Ma'an.  It cost around US$170 Million dollars to build, and generates one per cent of the country’s total production of electricity.

Solar power is also changing things for the better at the many refugee camps in Jordan.  The 12.9-megawatt plant at Za'atari Camp provides eighty thousand Syrian refugees with clean and free electricity.  Since the UN doesn't have to purchase 30,000 barrels of oil every year to power the camp, the resources can be applied to other necessities.

"We have started to receive 'zero dollar' electricity bills," said Hashim Ramouni an electrical engineering associate at United Nations refugee agency.  "We can invest this five million in other services for the refugees, like protection, field services, roads, and infrastructure."