The 32 solar companies involved in developing the 1.8 GW Benban solar complex in Egypt have agreed to a request from national utility the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) to hand over an extra EGP1.6 billion ($102 million) for costs.
The deal was finally signed off yesterday, said Ghada Darwish, secretary-general of the Benban Solar Developer Association.
The utility had been demanding the payment under one of five cost-sharing arrangements which developers had to sign to qualify to be allocated generation capacity at the site, with the EETC claiming, in February last year, the extra money was needed to cover rising building material costs.
pv magazine reported in October a EGP1.6 billion figure had been agreed – as reported by financial news service Al Borsa News – but the terms of payment were subject to negotiation.
Darwish told pv magazine developers have agreed to pay half the fee immediately with the balance to be paid over five years. Payments during the first two years of that period will be interest-free, according to Darwish, who said the deal had been signed off by the EETC and state renewables body the New and Renewable Energy Authority.
The rise in costs is reportedly the second financial hit for Benban investors, with the Daily News Egypt newspaper stating in February last year that a previous blow had come in 2016 when the Central Bank of Egypt had floated the exchange rate for the Egyptian pound.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.