International. Already in operation is the world's largest solar power plant that is located in Egypt, where the government plans to generate up to 1.8 gigawatts of sunshine, reducing the Arab nation's most populous dependence on dirty and expensive fossil fuels.
The plant was developed by the German company Ib Vogt GmbH and a local company called Infinity Solar S.A.E. The 64-megawatt facility is the first of 32 units the government is aiming for construction at the Benban Solar Park in aswan province in the southeast. The project, with all the plants, will be completed this year at a cost of US$2.8 billion.
"At this plant, we have 200,000 solar panels and 780 solar trackers that allow the panels to move into the solar position throughout the day," said Amine el-Edghiri, Ib Vogt's project manager, during a media tour of the facility 650 kilometers (400 miles) south of Cairo on the margins of the desert. of Nubia. Photovoltaic modules spread over 95 hectares (235 acres) can produce enough energy to power 20,000 homes, el-Edghiri said.
Egypt currently produces more than 90 percent of its energy from oil and natural gas, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The Benban solar park, along with other projects in the pipeline, should help Egypt reduce its use of hydrocarbons, as the country's targets generate 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2022.
Energy imports
Formerly a gas exporter, Egypt must now import liquefied natural gas, or LNG, at a high cost to meet its energy needs. The new gas fields they have begun producing, including the giant offshore Zohr field operated by Eni SpA, should help the country close its supply gap, cut its import bills and perhaps even resume exports. Solar and wind projects will help transform the country's menu of energy options.
Renewables are "one of the most important sources," Egypt's Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said at the inauguration event. "We had a lot of blackouts, and one of the reasons was that we had a huge distortion in our energy mix and used to rely heavily on fuel and natural gas products, "We had a lot of blackouts," Said.
Egypt's first round of feed-in tariffs for solar led to the installation of fewer than 200 megawatts of projects, several gigawatts of applications, due to commercial terms that many investors considered onerous. The government amended its terms in the second phase of the fee schedule, including a change to allow for international arbitration, to try to attract a greater number of foreign lenders and investors.
The second phase was more successful, with many projects securing funding. Improvements in technology that make it profitable for investors to exploit the country's abundant sunlight also made a difference.
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