Scatec Solar has completed the construction and recently commissioned a new solar photovoltaic plant on the Benban complex. The new installation of this independent power producer (IPP) is equipped with two-sided solar panels that are able to capture solar radiation on both sides of the module.
“We see a lot of potential in the coming years for the deployment of two-sided modules in the Middle East context, where resources are excellent and conditions are favourable for such modules,” Ahmad El Mokadem, Senior Banker at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), analysed a few months ago.
Double-sided solar panels boost the production of Scatec Solar’s new power plant, which supplies 65 MW of electricity. The three facilities that the company recently commissioned in Benban have the same capacity. It has two more solar power plants to be delivered to this site, bringing its total capacity to 390 MW.
Scatec Solar estimates that the electricity produced by its new solar power plant is capable of supplying 420,000 Egyptian households while avoiding 350,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. The electricity will be distributed via the grid of the Egyptian state-owned Electricity Transmission Company (EETC). It has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for the new plant.
Scatec Solar is building a total of six solar power plants in Benban with its partners, the insurance company Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP), Norfund, the Norwegian Government Investment Fund, and Africa50, the African Development Bank (AfDB) Investment Fund for electricity infrastructure.
With the three solar power plants that have been put into service recently, notably by Electricitié de France (EDF) and Elsewedy Electric, Benban is moving towards a complete delivery. In all, the complex located in the governorate of Aswan will produce 1,650 MW from 41 solar photovoltaic plants developed by IPPs.
Jean Marie Takouleu