Egypt Romancing Solar

Flagsol GmbH, a subsidiary of Solar Millennium AG, has received the contract for the design and supply of the solar field for a hybrid power plant in Egypt. The solar field will be completed in cooperation with Orascom Construction Industries and NREA, the Egyptian authority responsible for renewable energy.

The contract has Flagsol designing a solar field and providing the controls for it. The company will also be responsible for the supply of various key components, for example, the parabolic mirrors and the absorber pipes.

The project is slated to cost around $366 million and will receive a subsidy from Global Environment Facility of $50 million due to the role model nature of the project.

According to plans, construction will take 30 months. Following this, Flagsol and Orascom Construction Industries will operate the plant for two years before the power plant is finally handed over to the end owner.

The hybrid power plant will use both natural gas and solar power to produce a total output of 150 MW. The solar field consists of parabolic troughs with a total mirror surface area of approximately 130,000 sq meters. The construction of the power plant in Kuraymat is expected to begin shortly.

“The contract for the hybrid power plant represents the first project for Solar Millennium in North Africa. The potential for solar thermal power plants in this region is so large, that even a very small fraction of the desert surface would be enough to cover not only the growing electricity requirements of North-African countries, but also to supply cheap solar electricity to Europe in the future.” said Christian Beltle, Chairman of the Board of Solar Millennium.

Dr. Thomas Thaufelder, managing director of Flagsol added: “The contract is an important success for Flagsol, because we have won an internationally-tendered project, but also because our role in the value-added chain is now significantly larger than in our first projects.”