A consortium led by International Finance Corporation (IFC) has agreed to lend $653m for 13 solar power plants in Egypt with total capacity of 752MW.

The solar plants will be built near the Egyptian city of Aswan and they will be part of the larger Benban Solar Park. Benban Solar Park is expected to include a total of 32 power plants.

These solar parks will generate 752MW of clean power cumulatively and the program has been officially named as the Nubian Suns Feed-in-Tariff Financing Program.

The feed-in-tariff program in Egypt is being considered as a major initiative that uses private sector capital and expertise to support the country’s goal to generate at least 20% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2022.

The clean electricity produced from these solar plants will be enough to power at least 350,000 residential customers, while creating up to 6,000 jobs during the construction.

Other members in the consortium include the African Development Bank; the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; the Arab Bank of Bahrain, CDC of the United Kingdom, Europe Arab Bank, Finance in Motion, FinnFund, ICBC, and OeEB of Austria.

The members will work alongside IFC to support six groups of independent power producers (IPPs) which will build and operate the 13 plants.  

IFC says that its financing has been designed to convert the energy sector in the country by helping it meet its growing energy demand by the deployment of renewable sources.

IFC CEO Philippe Le Houérou said: “Egypt’s reforms in its energy sector opened the door to private sector investments. For the Benban Solar Park project, those reforms and our innovative financial tools have helped attract a number of investors and financiers into the country for the first time.

“This will create jobs for many Egyptians and provide clean and reliable energy for people across the country.”

The World Bank, through one of its agencies the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, is providing $210m in political risk insurance for 12 projects within the Banban Solar Park.

Image: IFC’s support to Egypt is expected to help produce 20% of its energy from renewables by 2022. Photo: Courtesy of RK008/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.