Eren Renewable Energy, a global independent power producer, and its strategic partner Access Power have announced the financial close of two solar photovoltaic (PV) plants marking their official entry into the Egyptian renewable market.
The secured funding will be used to finance the construction of two solar PV plants with a total capacity of 126MWp, located in the Benban solar park in the Aswan province of Egypt.
The two projects have been awarded through Egypt’s Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) programme, launched by the national Ministry of Electricity and the country’s New & Renewable Energy Authority (NREA). Construction of the plants is expected to start before the end of 2017. With each of the plants generating roughly 143 GWh per year, they will contribute to the reduction of more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
The plants are project financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Proparco, the private sector financing arm of the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement). EBRD and Proparco have together provided $111.6 million.
David Corchia, CEO of Eren RE, commented: “We are honoured to set up in Egypt and will work hard to commission these two projects rapidly.”
Reda El Chaar, executive chairman of Access Power, said: “These two projects will contribute to meeting the energy needs of the country while also enhancing the possibilities of additional large scale solar projects in the region.”
Benban is a $3.5 billion solar development complex, which is located in Aswan’s village of Benban, Egypt, consisting of 41 solar power plants with a total capacity of 1.8 GW. The project began in 2015 and construction will be completed by 2018.
