The Egyptian Minister of Military Production, Mohamed Saeed El Assar, has attended the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth $2 billion between the National Organization for Military Production (NOMP) and China’s GCL Group to establish a solar panel facility, Egypt Oil & Gas reports.

The MoU will establish an industrial complex to produce solar panels with a gigawatt of annual capacity, stated El Assar. The construction will be carried out through five stages, starting from the extraction of pure Egyptian quartz, through the manufacturing of silicon metal and poly-silicon, to the manufacturing of solar cells and panels.

According to the MoU, the military production companies will benefit from the expertise of GCL Group to align the Egyptian solar panel industry with international standards. GCL will also train the workers in the production lines and provide them with engineering consultancy, to enable them to operate and maintain solar panel production plants.