Norway’s Scatec Solar announced on 30 August the commercial operation of its fifth 50MW solar photovoltaic plant in Egypt’s Benban Solar Park. The plant is the Scatec Benban II project, also known as ‘Kom Ombo’, which was built on Plot 12-2 of the 40-plot park under development in the desert 40km north of Aswan. Scatec says its sixth and final project at Benban, Scatec Benban IV or ‘Red Sea Solar’, is expected to reach commercial operation within a couple of months.

The start-up of Scatec’s fifth Benban project takes grid-connected capacity in the park to 1.13GW. Eight plots are currently being developed and are expected to add 340MW to take the park’s total generating capacity to 1.47GW. Nine plots have yet to be awarded. The Egyptian Ministry of Energy’s NREA renewables agency intends to take total capacity at the park to 1.8GW. Although the first project at Benban started commercial operation in February 2018, the 22 other projects currently operating were all started up this year (MEES, 23 August). (CONTINUED - 170 WORDS)