Egypt: Chinese company starts building solar power stations at Benban

Egypt and China’s clean energy company, TBEA Sunoasis, started construction of four solar power stations at the Benban Solar Energy Park in Egypt’s southern province of Aswan.

The stations, with an output of 186 megawatts, are part of the giant Benban Solar Plant which is expected to be completed by mid-2019. The Benban Solar Plant, after completion, aims to generate up to 2 gigawatts of utility-scale solar capacity through a total of 40 projects.

Lynn Xia, TBEA’s vice president of overseas business, told Xinhua that the plant is going to be one of the largest in the world. “The responsibility is on our shoulders because we are the ones who deliver the work here,” Xia said, adding that the project is TBEA’s first in Africa.

TBEA Sunoasis Company is a major global green and smart energy service provider with business in more than 20 countries. It is devoted to achieving sustainable development of human society with the use of smart, efficient and green energy.

Governor of Aswan Magdy Hegazy, who attended the project’s inauguration ceremony, said the total investment of the four stations is US$180 million. The Benban Solar Park, about 650 km south of Cairo, is financed by a number of global funding agencies and banks, including the the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The solar plant, which occupies an area of 37 km², will help Egypt increase its use of renewable energy to 22% of all domestic energy use by 2020. The project is estimated to help reduce global greenhouse gas emission through cutting more than half million tons of carbon dioxide annually.