Norwegian independent power producer (IPP) Scatec, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have signed a US$650 million investment agreement for the Dandara solar-plus-storage project in Nag Hammadi, Egypt.
The Dandara hybrid project is expected to co-locate a 1GW solar PV facility with a 200MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).
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The investors expect the Dandara facility is to be built in two phases, with each adding 500MW solar capacity and 100MWh of BESS.
The closing of the finance deal came at an announcement event attended by Egyptian prime minister Mostafa Madbouly and minister of electricity and renewable energy Mahmoud Esmat.
The AfDB, in particular, will contribute up to US$66 million to the Dandara project, which will consist of US$46 million taken from the bank’s ordinary resources and US$20 million in concessional financing from the Climate Investment Funds’ Clean Technology Fund (CTF).
Agreements were also signed at the event on Monday to connect the Dandara project to the Egyptian national grid, and for the National Bank of Egypt to contribute to the project company. In May this year, the National Bank of Egypt bought a 20% equity stake in the Obelisk solar PV project, for which Scatec is the constructor and operator. Scatec holds a 40% share in the Obelisk project.
The latest finance round for Dandara follows the announcement earlier this month of a renewable energy investment platform for projects in Egypt, to be established by Scatec in partnership with the EBRD. It is unclear whether the Dandara funding announced this week is additional to, or part of the investment platform announced by the two organisations.
