Saudi Arabia’s Alfanar group has reached financial close for developing, owning and operating a 50MW photovoltaic (PV) solar plant under the second round of Egypt’s feed-in-tariff (FIT) programme.

Alfanar has signed a facility agreement for $57m with the European Bank for Reconstruction (EBRD) and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD). The developer had signed the power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) on 7 May.

The second round of Egypt’s FIT programme has been much more successful than the initial round, despite the tariff having been reduced by up to 40 per cent for the second round. Currency exchange guarantees and international arbitration have been introduced into the second round to increase the attractiveness of the tariffs for developers and lenders.

In October, MEED reported that a consortium of Saudi Arabia’s Swicorp and Spain’s Acciona Energia will develop three photovoltaic (PV) solar plants under the second round of the Fit programme.

The three plants, which will have a total combined capacity of 150MW, will be developed in the Benban complex in the Aswan region of Egypt. The total value of the PV schemes will be about $180m. The developer consortium has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) under the terms of the second round of Egypt’s FIT programme. The group will receive financing from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Cairo has achieved noticeably more success with the second round of its FIT round than the initial phase. MEED reported in August that Saudi Arabia’s Acwa Power had signed contracts to develop three projects under the FIT second round with a total capacity of 165.5MW, with a total estimated investment of $190m.

The three projects will also be located at Benban, and will have the capacity to generate 67.5MW, 70MW and 28MW individually. The projects are expected to reach financial close by the fourth quarter of 2017, with construction due to start by the end of the year. The plants are due to start operation in 2018. For the 67.5MW project, the local Hassan Allam Holding is Acwa Power’s partner for the scheme.

In the first round, three developers reached financial close for solar projects under the first round of the FIT programme. The first round of the feed-in-tariff programme had been plagued by a number of problems, from the ongoing currency crisis in Egypt to disputes over the omission of an international arbitration clause in the contracts.

A total of 40 developers were prequalified to participate in the first round of the programme in 2015, but only nine of these signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with EETC by the deadline in October 2016. Out of these nine, only the above three were able to successfully reach financial close under the conditions of the first round.