Benban Solar Park Project

Objective

The largest solar energy station in the world is built, where 90% of the energy produced from the High Dam will be generated. This is within the framework of the strategy developed by the New and Renewable Energy Authority, which aims to make 20% of the electricity produced in Egypt of clean energy by 2022. The first stage of the project came online in March 2018 and added 50 megawatts of clean, renewable power to Egypt’s power grid. Future installations at the solar park will add hundreds more megawatts of power capacity.

Description

"The Largest Solar Energy station in the world, 90% of the energy produced from the High Dam will be generated. 40 solar power plants under construction, each 50mw; gas insulated stations constructed for the first time. Built 250 acres estimated cost of project 40 billion egyptian pounds. First time that companies will sign contracts POT system- feed-in tarrif program, 32 investors.With the support of a $653 million investment from the International Finance Corporation. Owner: New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA). Companies operating in Benban include Infinity (Egypt), El Sewedy Electric (Egypt), TBEA Sunoasis (China), Scatec Solar (Norway), Ib Vogt (Germany), EDF Energies Nouvelles (France) and Alcazar Energy (UAE). Capacity: 1.8 GW Location: Aswan Status: Completed in 2019 and fully online. The park has more than 40 50-MW solar plants, attracting total investments of USD 4 billion. Benban is the largest grid-connected solar installation in Africa and the fourth largest in the world. "

History

The site has 41 individual solar plants developed and operated by different private sector companies. The park produces 2,000 MW to supply over one million homes. The project was conceptualised in 2012 and the EBRD provided a first loan of $1.1 billion. Since then the government has moved towards tenders for the plots, and received training from EBRD funded by the Green Climate Fund grants.

Finance