Eight-seven investment alliances are eligible to work in the renewable energy sector in the coming period, head of the New and Renewable Energy Association (NREA) Mohamed Salah El-Sokbi said.
Scatec Solar has been operating solar energy plants for 30 years. Pal Helsing is responsible for engineering, supply chain management and project execution of all projects and says that Egypt has achieved great in success the quality of its renewable energy projects.
In Egypt, Scatec operates five power plants with capacities of 600MW. The company is developing another project in Egypt this period.
Egypt is achieving a great growth in the recent period and its energy market is promising, thus Egypt can export electricity abroad in the future, Helsing said.
Lekela Power has held successful meetings with Egyptian investors, though the renewable energy sector suffers from logistical issues such as transportation, security and safety, the company’s CEO Chris Antonopoulos said.
Antonopoulos understands that the Egyptian side prefers that foreign investors are subject to local laws.
The financial closure for Lekela Power’s project in Banban, Aswan will be be finished in October, Antonopoulos said.
El-Sobki said the Egyptian government wants foreign investments in the renewable energy sector to be successful which is why it issued the feed-in tariff law.
Acwa Power’s Egypt director Hassan Amin said there are some challenges facing investors in Egypt which they are trying to avoid in order to continue cooperation with the country.
Egypt is an ideal model for attracting companies operating in the solar power sector, Amin said.
It is important to differentiate between the challenges that investors face in solar and wind plant investments, Amin added.
Deputy managing director and chief risk officer at Emirates NBD Sahar El Damati said financing projects in Egyptian pounds is not problematic. However, problems arise when financing mega-projects as more than one bank provides loans in dollars through consortiums.
Head of debt capital markets at the Commercial International Bank (CIB) Heba Abdel Latif expects that dollar crisis will continue until the end of 2016. However, banks are still granting loans for companies in the renewable energy sector.
The CIB will finance the local component of the mega-projects with loans with a 15-year grace period and a fixed interest rate.
