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Engineer working on checking equipment in solar power plant. Getty Images Image used for illustrative purpose.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced on Tuesday that it disbursed a $5.5 million loan to Egypt’s TAQA PV for Solar Energy under its existing green private-to-private projects facility to finance the construction of a solar power plant El Minya, the development bank said in a press statement.
TAQA PV for Solar Energy is renewable energy business arm of TAQA Arabia, an Egyptian joint stock company and a subsidiary of Qalaa Holding.
The new funding consists of a $4.95 million loan from the EBRD and a $550,000 concessional loan from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to finance the construction and operation of a 7-megawatt peak (MWp) solar photovoltaic (PV) project for ASCOM Carbonate and Chemical Manufacturing (ACCM).
The project will sell all its output to ACCM under a 25-year corporate power purchase agreement (PPA).
Last month, Zawya Projects reported that EBRD is financing a 7.128 MWp solar power plant being developed by SolarizEgypt for Orascom Development’s El Gouna township in Hurghada.
EBRD said the new tranche to TAQA PV follows an initial $4.2 million loan in December 2020 to finance the construction and operation of a 6 MWp solar PV power plant at Dina Farms in the Beheira governorate.
The Egyptian government aims to raise the national share of electricity generation capacity from renewables to 42 percent by 2035 from 20% in 2022.
(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)
