UAE-based Amea Power has reached a deal with the International Finance Corporation and others to build a $700 million solar plant and battery energy storage system in Egypt to meet its growing electricity needs.
The Dubai-based renewable energy company is also partnering with Japanese energy company Kyuden International Corporation to deliver the 1,000 megawatt solar plant combined with a 600 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system in the southern governate of Aswan, it said on Thursday.
The project, of which Amea Power owns 60 per cent and Kyuden the remaining 40 per cent, is expected to be ready for commercial operations by June 2026.
It is expected to generate more than 3 million MWh of clean electricity annually, enough to power more than 500,000 households, while offsetting 1.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year, Amea said.
Construction is expected to create more than 4,000 jobs, with more than 95 per cent of the roles filled by Egyptians.
“Given the strategic importance of this renewable energy project for Egypt’s energy system, we initiated construction at the earliest opportunity, advancing delivery even before project finance was finalised,” said Hussain Al Nowais, chairman of Amea Power.
Growing clean power and storage capacity will help Egypt meet its growing energy needs sustainably and build “long-term resilience”, said Cheick-Oumar Sylla, IFC’s division director for North Africa and the Horn of Africa.
Electricity demand in the Middle East and North Africa has tripled since 2000, and it is set to increase by 50 per cent by 2035, as rapid population growth, urbanisation and industrial expansion drive consumption.
The Mena region, mainly viewed as a global oil and gas supplier, is now emerging as a global centre of electricity demand growth, according to a September report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The Middle East has the third largest growth in electricity demand after China and India, Dr Fatih Birol, executive director at the IEA, told The National at the time.
Egypt has been struggling with an energy crisis after production began to decline in 2022, forcing it to abandon its ambitions to become a regional supplier.
The North African country has spent billions of dollars on importing liquefied natural gas to meet the shortfall.
Israel on Wednesday said it has approved a deal that will supply up to $35 billion of gas to Egypt from the Leviathan natural gasfield.
Financing structure
The new solar and battery project will be financed through a $570 million senior debt package led by the IFC, comprising its own account and funds mobilised from international partners Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, FMO, DEG, British International Investment, the Opec Fund for International Development, and Europe Arab Bank, the statement said.
The financing structure also includes concessional blended finance.
The project builds on a partnership between Amea Power and IFC across North Africa.
This includes commissioning of the 500MW solar power plant in Aswan and the 500MW wind power plant in Ras Ghareb, as well as the first utility-scale battery energy storage system in Egypt. They also collaborated for the first large-scale privately financed solar project in Tunisia.
