Photograph — Staff Arabia

Egypt is turning its attention to renewable energy as a key component in meeting its urgent electricity demands. The country’s aim is that by 2020, it will get 20 percent of its overall energy usage from renewable sources.

The North African country has, therefore, grabbed the attention of local cable maker, El Sewedy Electric which formed the Egyptian Company for Solar Energy Development (ECSED). The company said it has agreed a deal to develop a 50 megawatt solar energy power plant in Aswan, about 800km south of Cairo.

In a statement to Egypt’s stock exchange, El Sewedy says it will invest about $75 million in ECSED. The subsidiary will be in charge of developing, funding, owning and running the power plant.

“El Sewedy will sell the energy produced from the plant to the Egyptian Company for Transporting Energy at a price of 0.1434 for kilowatt per hour,” Reuters quoted the company to have said.

Egypt has an average level of solar radiation of between 2,000 to 3,200kWh per square metre a year. It therefore, has significant potential for utilising the sun to shore up its energy deficits.

In its feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme, the country plans to get up to 2,300 MW of power from the sun, in the first regulatory period which will end when these targets are met, or latest, after two years.

The government had said in April that it must invest $12 billion in the electricity sector over the next five years to meet growing electricity demand. Although the country currently has a total generating capacity of 31GW, it will be needing another 13GW by 2019.

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