From mirage to reality in 98 years: the evolution of solar power in Egypt

Pic courtesy of Solar Panels Plus

Egypt and solar power have a long history together, as befits a nation that advertises its sun as a tourist attraction.

In 1912, the US engineer and inventor

built

in Egypt, consisting of five rows of 62-metre parabolic mirrors. It had a power capacity of 88 kilowatts, which was quite astounding for the time.

Mr Shuman, who founded the Sun Power Company in 1908 with the intent of building large power plants, dreamt of building a massive solar array in the Sahara with an installed capacity of nearly 200 megawatts. If he had succeeded, such a power plant could have met global power demand, at least around midday.

Sadly, electricity demand in modern-day Egypt alone is now taxing the country's

- an unthinkable amount in Mr Shuman's day.

None of that is currently solar power. By the end of this year, however, Egypt could have its first 20mw of grid-connected solar capacity, or about a tenth of the amount that the US solar pioneer hoped to develop. It will consist of a solar array that is part of an integrated natural gas/concentrated solar power hybrid project that is due to come into

, later this year. The plant will have a total power capacity of 140mw.

The Kuraymat facility was being built as a test project. But already Egypt's

is considering developing two additional hybrid facilities in Upper Egypt, at sites between Luxor and Aswan.

The plants' combined capacity

. As yet, it is unclear how much of that would solar power, and how much gas-fired generation.