ACWA Power closes financing for $190 mln Egypt solar projects

Riyadh-based ACWA Power has reached the financial close for three solar photovoltaic (PV) projects under Round 2 of Egypt Feed-in Tariff programme II, with an aggregate capacity of 165.5-megawatt peak (MWp), the power-plant developer said on Monday.

The $190 million projects are being financed 25 percent through sponsors' equity and 75 percent through non-recourse project debt from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the firm said in a statement.

The ICBC tranche has secured cover from Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, it added.

The projects, located in Egypt’s Aswan province, will have a capacity to generate 67.5 MWp, 70 MWp and 28 MWp as individual projects.

Construction on the units will start in Q1 2018, with operations expected to begin in Q4 this year.

The new installed capacity will power 80,000 houses and provides a saving of 156,000 tons of CO2, a year after start of operations, the statement said.

ACWA Power has partnered with China's Chint and the Egyptian firms Tawakol and Hassan Allam Holding on the project.

The firm said it is also pursuing other opportunities in Egypt, including Dairut 2250MW CCGT project and has a pipeline of more than 500MW wind projects, 1GW of PV projects and 100MW of CSP projects.

The Egypt government aims to have 20 percent of the country’s electricity come from renewables by 2022.