The Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy paid the dues of 10 companies which withdrew from the projects of the feed-in tariff system without deductions or fines, according to the instructions of Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker.
Sources in the Electricity Ministry said that the ministry returned to the 10 companies the letters of guarantee they deposited to the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) as collateral for the land that is intended for the establishment of solar energy plants in Banban, Aswan. The value of these letters of credit is $7.5m, $750,000 from each company.
The sources told Daily News Egypt that the NREA paid EGP 1.6m to the ten companies for their contributions towards the construction of roads in the lands allotted for solar energy projects in Banban.
The sources pointed out that the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) paid EGP 97.9m to the ten companies as cost-sharing for the establishment of transformers that transfer electricity produced from the solar plants in Banban.
The EETC paid the value of letters of guarantee for the implementation of the project to the ten companies, which was worth about EGP 301m.
The list of companies that received their dues from the Ministry of Electricity include Italian Enel Green, Saudi Arabia’s Abdel Latif Jameel, Egypt’s Cairo Solar, Egypt’s Orascom Telecom, Egypt’s Wadi Degla, the United Arab Emirates’ Adenium Energy Capital, and Egypt’s Solar Shams .
The sources added that the Ministry of Electricity will complete repaying the dues of 10 other companies in a few days. Letters of guarantee deposited by the 10 companies to the EETC and NREA were paid.
The ministry is currently coordinating to pay for cost-sharing and road construction.
The government launched a new and renewable energy feed-in tariff programme in 2014 aimed at establishing projects for producing electricity from solar and wind plants at a capacity of 4,300 MW with investments worth $7bn. It also includes 2,300 MW for solar projects of which 300 MW is for plants with a capacity less than 500 KW, and 2,000 MW for wind plants.
In all, 56 companies obtained lands for establishing feed-in tariff projects, and 20 companies have withdrawn from these projects. Nine companies signed an energy purchase agreement in the first phase of the feed-in tariff projects, while 27 companies are taking part in the second phase, according to sources.
Sources added that a large number of companies are resuming work in the second phase of the feed-in tariff projects, and they are still studying the feasibility of implementing these projects. Companies will sign a purchase agreement according the regulations of the second phase of the feed-in tariff after finalising the financial closure.
