Saudi’s energy firm ACWA Power has reached a financial closure for the 200-megawatt (MW) utility-scale solar power plant in Egypt with a total investment cost of $182m.
The project is expected to start operations by January 2024. In a statement, ACWA Power said that the financing institutions for the Kom Ombo project include the 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.
It may be noted that, of the $123m financial package announced by the team for the project in April, $35.6m was from EBRD, $14.4m from the OPEC Fund, $14.1m from the AfDB, $34.1m from GCF, $14.4m from the Arab Bank and $10m from SEFA under the COVID-19 IPP relief programme.
The project has also already secured equity bridge loans of $14m from EBRD and $45m from APICORP. Expected to commence operations in January 2024, it has a capacity to supply electricity to 130,000 households once fully operational.
With this, it will also contribute to the country’s target of generating 42% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2035.
