UAE-based renewable power developer AMEA Power has commissioned a 500MW solar PV plant in Egypt.
A 25-year power purchase agreement has already been secured with Egypt’s electricity transmission company, Egypt Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), for the Abydos solar PV project, which is located in the Aswan governorate. According to the developer, it has been completed in 18 months and is among the largest solar projects in Africa.
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A 300MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) will be co-located with the 500MW solar PV plant and is part of the developer’s expansion in Egypt. Last September, the company unveiled a 1GW solar-plus-storage project to be built in the Benban area, also in the Aswan governorate. The 1GW solar PV project will be accompanied by a 600MWh BESS.
Both AMEA Power and the EETC signed a PPA for the 1GW solar-plus-storage. The same week both companies signed the PPA, the EETC secured another 1GW solar-plus-storage PPA with Norwegian renewable power developer Scatec. Construction for the Scatec project is expected to begin in the first half of 2025 and will have a 100MW/200MWh BESS capacity.
The project, along with a 500MW wind plant, was financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO), and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Together, they represented a US$1.1 billion investment.
Chinese PV manufacturer JA Solar supplied its DeepBlue 3.0 Pro modules – which uses the company’s proprietary Gapless Flexible Interconnection technology – for the Abydos solar project.
4GW of new solar capacity by summer 2025
Interest to develop solar PV in Egypt continues to rise as the country aims to add 4GW of renewables by summer 2025. The push to accelerate the growth of renewables in the country is due to an increased power demand in Egypt.
At the upstream level, interest in building domestic solar manufacturing capacity has also received interest from Singapore-headquartered manufacturer EliTe Solar. Announced in September 2024, the manufacturer aims to build solar cell and module assembly plant with an annual nameplate capacity of 8GW.
The project will be built in two phases, with the first one seeing 2GW of solar cell capacity by September 2025.
