The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Elsewedy Electric to develop, fund, establish, and operate a 50 Megawatt (MW) solar plant in Benban, Aswan, under the terms of the second phase of feed-in-tariff (FiT) program, reports Amwal Al Ghad.

Elsewedy Electric is one of the companies announced in October 2016 to be qualified for establishing solar power plants in Benban, Egyptian Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Mohamed Shaker, said. He added that the financial closure of the solar power plants will be ready within a year, while the financial closure of wind farms will be completed in a year and half.

The Ministry of Electricity has signed PPA agreements with 18 firms to execute projects with total capacity 870 MW, Shaker noted.

These agreements are signed as a part of the FiT program. The program aims to produce 2000 MW from wind farms, 2000 MW from solar plants operating through photovoltaic, and 300 MW from solar projects with capacities less than 500 MW, Shaker explained.

During phase two of the FiT program, wind farms must receive 60% of their funding from foreign sources and 40% from local sources. This spread is higher for solar projects which require 70% of their funding to come from foreign sources and only 30% from local sources, according to Daily News Egypt.