Egypt’s government has dropped the purchasing prices for electricity in the second phase of the country’s  Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) program from $0.1432, the rate used in first phase, to $0.084. Noting the the pricing will be applicable upon phase start which is scheduled for October 2016, reported Al Bora News.

Former Chief of the Egyptian Electric Utility & Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency, Hafez Salmawy, stated that the prices for the first phase of FiT was decided according to a feasibility study that was conducted in September 2014, and was based on the expected profit, the cost, and the prices in neighbor countries like Turkey and Morocco.

He added that, Egypt saw the necessity of decreasing FiT rates due to competing tenders in Jordan, and because the production cost per KW has decreased from $800 to $740. Furthermore, the cost of linking production of solar plants to the national power grid has dropped by 50% . The government attributed all these factors and decided on the new purposed rates for the second phase.