Egyptian company Infinity Solar S.A.E. has achieved successful financial closure of a 64.1 MW solar power plant in Benban, Aswan of Egypt, along with two of its German partners, ib vogt GmbH and Solizer GmbH Infinity. The 'Infinity 50' consortium is developing the project. The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) confirmed financial close for the project under the first round of Egyptian feed-in-tariff (FiT) program.
Egypt had unveiled its FiT program in 2014 with plans to install 2.3 GW of solar by 2017. Out of this, 2 GW were planned to be set up as central power plant capacity with the remaining 300 MW as distributed PV systems smaller than 500 kW (see Engie More Active In Egypt). But as global module prices were falling, Egyptian authorities modified the rules and launched a second round with lower tariffs, upsetting many of the participants in the first round.
Out of 39 local and international developers participating in the first FiT round bid, only very few are still actively pursuing to realize their projects as planned.
The Infinity 50 Solar Park will be spread in an area of 98.6 hectares in the Benban Solar Development Complex. Once complete, the complex will have a total capacity of up to 1.86 GW, which will be one of the largest solar generation facilities in the world. ib vogt will offer its services as the EPC contractor and O&M services provider.
The 64.1 MW plant will use 200,000 solar panels on horizontal tracking system. On becoming operational, the plant is anticipated to produce over 110,000 MWh per year.
The project has received 85% financing from the Bavarian State Bank Bayerische Landesbank, with the remaining 15% coming from the Arab African International Bank. The loan is covered by the German government through an Euler Hermes ECG.
"We are very pleased to have secured this project and to have been one of the very few consortia able to successfully qualify for the landmark Egyptian round one program. This is the culmination of many months of preparatory work in what has been a very complex project, representing a very significant investment for the company," said Anton Milner, Managing Director of ib vogt.
Construction is already ongoing and expected to complete by Q4/2017. More than 400 jobs will be created in the region during the construction phase.
EETC will be buying all the power generated by this plant for a period of 25 years.
Egypt is pursuing a target of achieving 20% of its total energy demand through renewable energy by 2020.