Facts about Egypt’s solar power plant

CAIRO – 12 October 2017: Governor of Aswan, General Magdy Fouad Hegazy ordered on Thursday the formation of a steering committee to ensure that the underway construction works of the solar power plant in Aswan are done properly.


Work for the 2000 megawatt solar power plant has already started back in 2015. Four main stations of the plant are already completed.


Publicly dubbed as the “new solar power city,” Egypt’s largest solar plant costs about LE 40 billion ($2.3 billion), and will expectedly open up 6,000 job opportunities.


The massive national project will be inaugurated by 2018, and aims to ease the electricity shortages and achieve Egypt’s energy self-sufficiency.


In July, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) approved $660 million in funding to 11 FiT projects in Benban, near Aswan, according to an International Cooperation Ministry statement. These projects are worth a total of $730 million and have a total capacity of 500MW.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is also expected to finance a total of 16 solar projects in Egypt at a total capacity of 750MW. It pledged $500 million in funding framework for the FiT project.