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Saudi Arabian integrated utility developer ACWA Power, partly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), said on Tuesday it has signed a $123 million financing package to develop the 200MW Kom Ombo solar project in Egypt.
Financing institutions for this project include European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund), African Development Bank (AfDB), AfDB’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), Green Climate Fund (GCF), Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) and Arab Bank.
The package comprises loans of up to $36 million from the EBRD, $14.6 million from the OPEC Fund, $14.4 million from the AfDB, $34.5 million from the GCF, $14.8 million from Arab Bank and $10 million from the SEFA under the COVID-19 IPP relief programme.
The project already has equity bridge loans of $14 million from the EBRD and $45 million from the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP).
The Kom Ombo plant will be located less than 20 kilometres from Africa’s biggest solar park, the 1,465 MW Benban complex—another ACWA Power development—and is expected to be commercially operational in January 2024. Once fully functional, the new utility-scale plant will serve 130,000 households.
(Reporting by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)
