ERA looks into providing solar energy companies permanent licenses
Companies include those that have signed the energy purchasing agreement with the EETC
In a meeting on Monday, the Egypt Electric Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency (ERA) will discuss providing permanent licenses to the solar energy companies that have signed the energy purchasing agreement with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) for the first and second phase of the feed-in tariff.
Sources at the ERA said that the meeting will include issuing special codes and establishing a system to connect solar energy projects to the grid. The approval for providing these companies the permanent license to generate electricity from the solar energy plants will be according to the feed-in tariff system.
The sources told Daily News Egypt that the list of companies to be provided with the permanent license includes Infinity Solar, Alef Solar, and FAS Energy, as they were able to complete their financial closure and obtain models from the cabinet during the first phase of the feed-in tariff projects.
Reviewing the models and documents of the companies that signed the energy purchase agreement will be done in the second phase of the feed-in tariff programme. These companies include Scatec Solar, Philadelphia, and Sun Infinity, among others.The capacity of each company is estimated at 50MW for each company, and a total of 300MW.
The sources explained that all the companies that applied to obtain the license have repaid a cheque worth EGP 25,000 to the ERA for the examination of the file, and about EGP 10,000 after accepting the file.
The sources stressed that there is demand from the investors’ side, as well as international companies, to establish renewable energy projects in Egypt, especially with the clarity of the government’s vision regarding its provision of incentives to these companies, in addition to the lowered cost of producing solar energy thanks to the distinct locations and the increase of the thermal radiance of the sun.
The government launched the feed-in tariff programme for renewable energy in 2014 in order to establish projects to produce electricity from solar and wind power plants with capacities of 43,000MW and investments worth $7bn.