Masdar, ACWA Power Team Up For 1.5 GW Solar Power Projects In Egypt

ACWA Power, together with Masdar, has joined a long list of international renewable energy project developers entering into agreements with the Egyptian government to set up large-scale solar power capacity.

According to reports, the Egyptian government has signed agreements with a number of project developers to set up at least 6.5 GW of solar power capacity. These agreements would results in total investments of more than $30 billion over the next few years.

ACWA Power and Masdar have signed an agreement with Egyptian Electricity Holding Company to develop 2 GW of renewable energy capacity, including 1.5 GW solar power and 500 MW wind energy capacity. The companies are expected to start the capacity development with a 200 MW solar photovoltaic power plant.

The renewable energy capacity addition will be matched with a 2.2 GW of combined-cycle natural gas power project.

The announcement follows similar agreements being signed by Terra Sola and SkyPower. Terra Sola has announced $3.5 billion investment to set up about 2 GW of solar power capacity over the next few years. The company initially plans to set up a 800 MW solar power park.

SkyPower Global and International Gulf Development have jointly signed agreement to install up to 3 GW of solar power capacity over the next 4 years.

Egypt plans to aggressively expand its renewable energy installed capacity as it targets to generate 20% electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The government has also launched an attractive feed-in tariff scheme to boost investments in the solar power sector. Solar PV projects between 500 kW and 20 MW in size will get 13.6¢/kWh, and projects between 20 MW and 50 MW will get 14.34¢/kW, with contracts for a 25-year term.