Egypt had touted that it would house Africa’s first integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) plant, originally scheduled to come online by the end of 2010. Then Egypt announced its new plant, totaling $460 million in investments, would be ready in February. The plant in Kuraymat will include a solar capacity of 20 MW of the 140 MW produced, and is expected to produce 3,000 tons per annum of polysilicon to produce solar cells.
As the Egyptian revolution was underway, the North African country lost its claim to becoming the first nation with an ISCC plant. Morocco beat Egypt to the punch on February 8 announcing that its Ain Beni Mathar plant was running at full capacity (World’s First ISCC Plant in Morocco).
Kuraymat has stagnated, attempting to reach its financial close. "Foreign partners on the project left and we couldn’t continue", says Khaled Fekry, director of research and development at the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA). The director has said that he hopes the commissioning will be complete by the end of June, but Egypt’s economic situation has yet to show signs of a rebound.
Another project that could be affected if the situation in Egypt does not stabilize is a second 100 MW plant in Kom Ombo that was announced in July 2010 and expected to be completed in 2017. And despite the current state of affairs, Fekry is still confident that Egypt can achieve its ambitious target to generate 7,200 MW of solar energy by 2020.
Fekry wants Egypt to follow the Tunisian model which had the government subsidizing solar water heaters. “[The Tunisian government] provided them on credit with low interest rates.” However, has Fekry or others from the NREA looked at how Tunisia’s solar industry has been affected by its revolution which ousted long-time leader Ben Ali?
He said, “We can only expand if we have finance. Foreign investors should direct funds to Egypt now and not wait until the country is stable.” With statements such as these from a director of the country’s renewable energy sector, you have to wonder if Fekry and his other renewable energy cronies understand the paradigm of investment.
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