A government-owned Chinese company, in alliance with Frienergy, allocate $200m as an investment minimum in new and renewable energy projects in Egypt this year.
Marco Frigido, chairperson of Frienergy, informed Daily News Egypt that his company is contributing by preparing engineering studies to establish electricity plants, construction works, as well as funding and participating in the projects’ capital, with the condition that the company’s share would not be less than 51%.
He added that Frienergy is planning on implementing projects, in cooperation with a government-owned Chinese company. It is also currently negotiating with international funding bodies, including the International Finance Cooperation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as well as Italian banks in order to borrow $180m.
“We have a long-term plan to invest in electricity projects in Egypt over the upcoming period, and there is no difficulty in financing them. The company has good relations with funding bodies,” he added.
Frienergy has implemented projects in Egypt and Iraq to develop businesses, including establishing an electricity line in Basra, which is 672 km long. The company also has the capabilities to work in other markets in the African continent, according to Frigido.
Furthermore, he pointed out that Frienergy has contracted with an Egyptian company to study the feasibility of implementing projects in Egypt to work on increasing the national production, especially since the local industry is growing. It is important, though, to understand that the cost of establishing social energy projects in Egypt and the Middle East does not match the revenues, as the cost of solar energy typically ranges between €50 to €60 per hour elsewhere, as for the Middle East, it costs about €8 per hour.
Moreover, Frigido pointed out that the company plans to invest in the field of energy from waste generation, in cooperation with a foreign company. It is awaiting the law which would regulate generating energy from waste to produce energy, and determine the tariff of selling each kW produced from the projects.
Additionally, he explained that the obstacles facing the projects include the high cost of funding in the local currency.
The Egyptian state has many contractual systems to establish projects for energy production from solar energy, including the feed-in tariff, the independent product, and net measurements.
