The Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Energy announced plans to build a 100 MW solar power plant in the country. The investment involved with this project is estimated at about USD 700 million, and the time frame for the completion has been set to be sometime between 2012 and 2017. Egypt has high hopes to establish itself as one of the leading developers of utility-scale solar power plants. Additionally, the country has set a clean energy goal of achieving 20% renewables by 2020.

The new project will be located at Kom Ombo, near the existing Aswan High Dam. Financing for the project will come from various source, international institutions, including the African Development Fund, and the World Bank. More funding will come from UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) which is a program designed for providing carbon offsetting for energy generation throughout the world. The technology to be used will be concentrated solar power (CSP), most likely using parabolic trough installations. CSP is the most effective solar energy harnessing technology for regions with extreme exposure to sunlight, such as North Africa.

Egypt is in the process of completing its first solar power plant, the 20 MW El-Korayamat, located just south of the capital Cairo. The new 100 MW power plant will be the second, and also largest solar power project in the country, but also in the surrounding parts of the region.

In order to achieve the 20% by 2020 goal, the Egyptian government will need to find a way to install at least 1 GW of solar, and an estimated 7.2 GW of wind energy capacity in the country. There are wind energy projects already under way in the country, such as the Zafarana with a planned total of 545 MW of capacity, with more planned for the future, but all this capacity together is still far from the 8 GW needed. Additionally, the country is a significant participant in the DESERTEC initiative, which is a very large scale solar power generation integration project, to cover the whole MENA region, from Morocco to the United Arab Emirates.

[via: BusinessGreen]