In March 2019, The Jordan Times reported that Ernst & Young (EY), the Bellona Foundation and the Sahara Forest Project (SFP) had agreed a partnership at a London conference. The aim was to commercialise and expand the 3-hectare demonstration site close to Aqaba airport. Combining solar energy, seawater and greenhouses, it yields up to 130,000 kg of vegetables a year plus 10 m³/d of desalinated fresh water. Norway pledged about 1 million USD in support for 2018 to 2020.
The report showed desalination being tested not as a large plant but as one small element in a loop of solar power, greenhouse and desert farming, still at demonstration scale at the time.