IN THE FIELD
ENERGY BOOST FOR A
CLEANER FUTURE
The OPEC Fund has teamed up with ACWA Power to boost power generation in partner counties Egypt and Uzbekistan, providing a total of US$68 million in financing to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote energy efficiency.
PROMOTING RENEWABLE ENERGY IN EGYPT
T
he OPEC Fund extended a US$18 million loan to ACWA to help
construct the Kom Ombo solar plant – the largest of its kind in Egypt. The development of the plant will add 200 MW of energy capacity, increasing the share of renewable energy in Egypt’s energy mix and further promoting private sector participation in the Egyptian power sector. The plant will be located less than 20 km from Africa’s biggest solar park, the 1.8 GW Benban complex. Once operational, the new utility-scale plant will serve 130,000 households. The total US$114 million financing
package with ACWA Power comprises the OPEC Fund’s contribution, loans of up to US$36 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD); US$17.8 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB); US$23.8 million from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and US$18 million from Arab Bank. This is in addition to equity bridge loans of up to US$14 million from EBRD and US$33.5 million from Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP). ACWA Power submitted the lowest tariff in what was the first solar photovoltaic (PV) tender in Egypt.
The provision of solar energy through a public tendering process aims to achieve a competitive tariff and promote the growth of solar energy as an affordable alternative to conventional energy sources. Private sector participation in the Kom Ombo project is the result of successful policy dialogue with the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), as well as a US$3.6 million technical assistance program, co-funded by the EBRD and the GCF, to support the EETC in administering competitive renewable energy tenders. In addition, the project has also benefitted from broader energy sector reforms supported by the AfDB in recent years to scale up the involvement of the private sector. The Kom Ombo plant will contribute
to the Egyptian government’s target to generate 42 percent of the country’s electricity from renewable energy sources by 2035 – while delivering one of the lowest generation tariffs on the continent. EBRD President Odile
Renaud Basso said: “Increasing the production of clean energy
OPEC Fund Director-General Abdulhamid Alkhalifa (bottom, left) signed the loan agreement with other project partners via a virtual ceremony.
ABOUT ACWA
POWER* ACWA Power is a developer, investor and operator of power generation and desalinated water production plants. Registered and established in 2004 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ACWA Power is currently present in 13 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and south-east Asia. ACWA Power’s mission is to reliably deliver electricity and desalinated water at a low cost, thereby making an effective contribution to the sustainable, social and economic development of communities and countries.
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PHOTO: Unsplash
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