Clifford Chance advises financiers on key Egypt solar projects

Clifford Chance advised the financiers, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), on the financing for six solar projects in Egypt.

The six solar projects will be owned by Norwegian solar developer, Scatec Solar jointly with their development partners. In April 2017, the project companies entered into 25-year Power Purchase Agreements for six photovoltaic (PV) plants totalling 400MW. The facilities are located in the Ben Ban area near Aswan in Upper Egypt and are expected to generate around 870GWh of solar electricity per year.

The solar projects form part of the 2GW solar FiT programme launched by the Egyptian Government in 2015. The electricity produced by the solar FiT programme will help Egypt to meet its emission reduction targets under the Paris Climate Agreement by replacing about 350,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year and further diversify the Egyptian power sector by exploiting the country’s renewable energy potential.

Clifford Chance provided advice to the conventional and Islamic lenders on approximately US$334 million commitment across all six projects with the remaining equity of around US$111 million coming from Scatec Solar, Africa50 – Project Finance and KLP Norfund Investments AS.

The UAE-based Clifford Chance team advising the lenders included partners Mohamed Hamra-Krouha, Richard Parris, and Qudeer Latif with support from Jennifer Riddle, Mavi Mudiaga-Erheuh, Cheuk Yin Cheung, Ahmed Choudhry, Michael Gabriel, Katie Joukadjian, Edesili Obetoh and Sara Salameh.