Saudi firm Acwa Power on 30 June announced the start of commercial operations at its 200MW Kom Ombo solar PV plant in southern Egypt. Though this is a delay of several months versus the previously-announced January 2024 plan (MEES, 1 September 2023), the extra capacity comes just as Egypt is struggling to produce enough power to meet peak summer demand (MEES, 5 July & MEES, 28 June). India’s Sterling & Wilson coordinated work under a $127.5mn EPC contract awarded in 2021. Acwa pegs total investment at $163mn and is set to operate the project under a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company.
This takes total Egypt solar capacity to 1.76GW, of which 1.46GW is at Benban, just 20km from Acwa’s Kom Ombo site in southern Egypt. Also nearby is the country’s only large-scale under construction solar project, 500MW Abydos Kom Ombo of UAE firm Amea. Here panel installation by EPC contractor China Energy Engineering is around 40% complete, latest satellite imagery indicates, with start-up slated for 1Q 2025. (CONTINUED - 394 WORDS)
