Italian company Eni has renewed its negotiations with the ministry of electricity to launch solar power plants in Egypt with a capacity of 1,000MW and investments of up to $1bn. Sources in the ministry of electricity told Daily News Egypt that the Italian company intends to implement 1,000MW solar power plants in phases, and will start with a 50MW plant on IPP scheme selling energy directly to the consumer, as well as another 250MW plant on BOO scheme. The sources added that Eni had asked the Egyptian Electric Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency to obtain a license to produce electricity from solar energy. The request will be presented at the next meeting of the board of directors. The Italian government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Italian company Eni to implement new and renewable power plants in Egypt. The Italian company started negotiations with electricity ministry last year to implement the projects in stages. The sources explained that the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) has been negotiating with the Italian company on the value of the tariff to buy the energy from a 50MW power plant. Eni has been talking for months to companies engaged in the field of solar energy projects to offer their technical and financial presentations, and companies have not yet been selected. The ministry of electricity intends to contract on projects for the production of electricity from new and renewable power stations with the private sector to achieve its strategy to produce 20% of total energy from the new and renewable sources by 2022. Various contracting mechanisms and systems have been developed for the implementation of the projects, including tenders, independent producers, feed-in tariffs, net measurements, and decreasing bids. Many Arab and international companies are negotiating to set up solar and wind stations with capacity ranging from 50 to 100MW per project.
