Publish Date : 20-Feb-2018
German project developer, investor and acting EPC contractor ib vogt has started building a portfolio of three solar power plants with a combined capacity of 166.5 MWp, at Benban in Aswan Governorate of Egypt.
The contract was offered as part of Round II of Egypts Feed-in Tariff (FiT) programme. These are the first plants to start building in this round.
ib vogt has partnered with Infinity Solar, Phoenix Energy and BPE Partners to develop the project which achieved financial close at the end of October.
The German company said work to build two of the solar power plants started in January, while the work on the third plant is set to start later this month.
It added that the three projects extend over a total area of 270 hectares, on which nearly 500,000 solar modules will be installed on horizontal tracking systems.
Once the projects are completed early next year, over 400,000 MWh of power will be produced per year enough to supply 55,000 homes and save 178,000 ton of CO2 emissions per annum.
Once connected to the grid, the solar power produced by these installations will be sold to the state-owned Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) on the basis of a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
Anton Milner, the managing director of ib vogt, stated: "Following the successful construction and energisation of our 64 MWp Round 1 project in Egypt we are pleased to announce the commencement of the build-out of our next three plants in this series and are proud that these are the first of the Round Two projects. We, together with our local partners, have demonstrated our strong capabilities to manage the complex issues in building these projects in Egypt, incorporating all stakeholders, local community and local specific requirements to deliver the projects," he stated.
According to him, the debt funding of $146 million was raised for these projects.
He added, "For the BSEP 50 and MMID 30 installations financing has been provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Dutch Development Bank and the Green Climate Fund. The International Finance Corporation, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the CDC Group provided the financing for the Phoenix 50 project. Including the operational Round One project, ib vogt's overall portfolio within the Benban solar development complex will rise to 230.6 MWp. At 1.8 GWp this solar power complex, located 650 km south of Cairo in the Aswan Governorate near the village of Benban, will be one of the worlds largest solar complexes and is a crucial part of Egypts plan to meet 20 per cent of its electricity demand through renewable energies by 2022."
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