(AFP Photo)
The energy committee of the Egyptian Businessmen’s Association (EBA) has completed a study to establish solar energy stations to generate electricity on the rooftops of homes, head of the committee Magd Eldeen Almanzlaoy said.
Almanzlaoy said that the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr participated in an initiative to finance such rooftop solar stations. Citizens who want to obtain solar power unit can get a concessional loan in accordance with a tripartite contract between banks, state-owned electricity companies and the EBA.
Almanzlaoy said that this loan’s interest ranges from 4% to 8%, as the value of the loan depends on the energy required per kilowatt per hour (KWH).
“The initiative will be implemented during the first quarter (Q1) of the current year, particularly as the legislative structure of the new tariff for renewable energy put Egypt on the map of countries producing electricity from renewable sources,” said Almanzlaoy.
He added that the initiative seeks to coordinate with state-owned electricity companies because the presence of electricity companies in this tripartite contract will lead to the success of the initiative.
Almanzlaoy revealed that in the case of the initiative’s success, citizens who have finished paying loan premiums can invest by selling the electricity produced from his solar unit.
“After seven years it is expected that a citizen who owns a solar unit will get electricity without paying any bills. Moreover, the citizen will sell electricity to the government and benefit from the subsidised price of electricity at the same time,” added Almanzlaoy.
He pointed out the returns on investment in this area for the citizen can be up to 18% on capital.
He explained that the station, which will be established for the production of electricity, will have a guarantee of up to 20 years, during which the supplier will abide of maintenance operations.
He added that this agreement will be applied within specific areas in Cairo as a preliminary stage, and will then be expanded into different governorates.
This initiative was modelled on the gas delivery system, which has seen remarkable success over the past years and has been able to eliminate the crisis of rising prices of butane gas.
