Norway’s Scatec Solar has begun commercial operation of a 65MW solar plant in the Benban solar park being built in the desert 40km north of Aswan in southern Egypt. The plant is the first of six with a combined generating capacity of 400MW that Scatec is building within the park, where the Ministry of Electricity is aiming to have 1.8GW of solar capacity installed. Scatec expects to have all six plants fully operational in the second half of 2019.
Scatec’s plant is the second to announce commercial operations at Benban after Egypt’s Infinity Solar began delivering electricity to the grid from a 50MW project completed in December 2017. However, MEES analysis of progress at Benban suggests that other projects may also have started up in recent weeks whilst over 1GW of capacity could be operating by year-end (MEES, 29 March). (CONTINUED - 205 WORDS)