The fine accumulated by Saudi developer FAS Energy for late delivery of a PV project in Egypt had reached $5 million yesterday, according to a report in the Daily News Egypt newspaper.
An article about the progress of projects at the Benban solar complex in Egypt – which was carried by the Zawya.com website – reported the fine is rising daily at a rate of $700 per megawatt per day for late delivery of the scheme, after FAS signed a deal to receive a FIT of $0.143/kWh generated under the first phase of Egypt’s feed in tariff.
The report notes FAS signed the deal with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, which is now, under the second phase of the FIT program, only paying $0.084/kWh. The report did not include details of the scale of the delayed FAS project.
Curiously, FAS Energy is reportedly only four days away from completing a 50 MW solar project elsewhere at Benban under the less lucrative second phase of the FIT scheme.
The Daily News Egypt report states domestic developer Infinity Solar connected a 30 MW plant on the complex last week and Egyptian rival TAQA Arabia is “97% complete” on a project of the same size. Emirati developer Alcazar Energy is reportedly at the same advanced stage on its own 50 MW project at Benban.
The Middle Eastern developers are among 32 companies at work on the Egyptian complex, where 1,435 MW are set to be installed.
The fine for FAS Energy comes at a time when the renewable energy lobby has added its condemnation to the chorus of voices criticizing Saudi Arabia, following its role in blocking full implementation of the objectives of the UN’s COP24 meeting held in Katowice next week.
The kingdom was already being treated as a pariah in many quarters after the murder of dissenting journalist Jamal Khasoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
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