Saudi developer and investor ACWA Power has finalised the project agreements for the 200MW Kom Ombo PV plant in Egypt.
The signing of the 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), Network Connection Contract and Usufruct Agreement was conducted via a virtual ceremony held with senior government officials and representatives from the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), The New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) and ACWA Power.
The agreements were signed by Engineer Sabah Mashaly, Chairman of EETC; Dr. Mohamed Al-KHayat, Chairman of NREA; Rajit Nanda, Chief Portfolio Management Officer and acting CIO of ACWA Power; and Engineer Hassan Amin, Country Development Director – Egypt, ACWA Power.
Dr Mohamed Shaker El Markabi, Egypt’s Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy: “Egypt is home to a wide range of untapped renewable resources particularly wind and solar energy. The electrical capacities that can be generated from renewable sources can reach up to nearly 90 GW. In line with Egypt’s Integrated Sustainable Energy Strategy, our aim is to produce 42% of Egypt’s electricity using renewable sources by 2035. Currently necessary studies are being conducted to increase this percentage, stressing on maximising the utilisation of renewable energy in many areas, including water desalination and green hydrogen production.”
Financial closure of Kom Ombo PV is scheduled for the third quarter of 2021, following the obtainment of a $40million senior debt financing and a $14mill equity bridge loan from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in addition to a $27,2m loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to finance the construction, development and design of the 200MW solar PV project.
The government guarantee for the project was signed in January 2021 between ACWA Power and Mohamed Maait, Egypt’s Minister of Finance. Kom Ombo PV is part of ACWA Power’s established energy portfolio and proven track record in Egypt, which currently includes three solar PV projects located in the Aswan province (Benban 1, Benban 2 and Benban 3) with an aggregate capacity of 12 MW, as well as the 2250MW Dairut-Luxor CCGT IPP in the Luxor Governorate.
Construction of the solar PV plant is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2021 and upon completion Kom Ombo PV will cater to the power needs of 130,000 households and offset 336,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Kom Ombo PV will be one of the largest privately developed utility scale solar plants in Egypt and will support the country to increase its renewable energy capacity in line with the national targets to generate 22% of Egypt’s power from renewables by 2022 and 42% by 2035.
