An Egyptian-Chinese alliance offered to launch a solar power plant with a capacity of 100MW and to sell the generation for the Building Materials Industries Company (BMIC), chairperson of Misr Asset Management (MAM), Ezz Othman, told Daily News Egypt on Wednesday.
Chinese Yingli Solar company will collaborate with MAM to establish the solar station, with investments estimated at $80m, and agreed with BMIC to sell the generated electricity to its cement factory.
The technical and economic studies for the project have been finalised, and it will be reviewed by the BMIC’s board, who initially agreed to purchase the generated electricity, however, the final approval is yet to be issued to start implementing the project, according to Othman.
He confirmed the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) approval to finance the station with $50m.
“BMIC’s concrete factory’s electricity consumption costs up to EGP 80m per month, that’s why the company is seeking to depend on solar energy to slim down the electricity bill,” Othman told Daily News Egypt.
Sameer Sabry, BMIC’s managing director, previously said that the country’s tendency to reduce energy subsidy is positive under the current circumstances, however, it negatively affects the steel, cement, and fertilisers sectors.
He pointed out that the cement industry in Egypt is advanced, but with the liberalisation of energy prices caused price hikes.
“The cement sector is experiencing a state of continuous change in prices under the mechanism of supply and demand, as well as changes in material prices,” Sabry said, stressing on the need to fully depend on local-produced materials to maximise the added value to this sector.
Sabry called on the government to reconsider liberation of energy prices, and its impact on the performance of every industrial sector.
