Egypt Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) has notified developers that no projects achieved financial closure under the second round of its feed-in tariff (FIT) programme.

EETC, which is overseeing the country’s feed-in tariff programme in partnership with the New Renewable Energy Authority (Nrea), had set a deadline of 28 April for wind projects under the second round to reach financial closure.

However, the client has sent notifications to developers that it did not receive any documents to satisfy the prerequisite conditions for the programme, and, as a result, none of the proposed wind projects would proceed under the second round.

While no wind projects managed to reach financial close by the deadline, photovoltaic (PV) solar projects in the second round fared much better, with a number of PV schemes reaching financial close in 2017.

These include two solar plants being developed by a consortium of the local Infinity Solar and Germany’s Ib vogt. The projects will have a combined total capacity of 80MW, and will funded by an $87m syndicated loan from the European Bank Redevelopment & Construction (EBRD), Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Dutch Development Bank (FMO).

The second round of solar projects in the FIT program was much more successful than the first round, which was beset by a number of problems despite having a much more generous tariff. The currency crisis to disputes over the omission of an international arbitration clause in the contracts resulted in only three projects reaching financial close in the initial round.

The FIT programme forms part of Egypt’s plans for renewable energy to contribute 37 per cent of its total power by 2035. The 37 per cent target is a significant increase on the 20 per cent clean energy goal it has set for 2022.

Speaking at the Middle East Electricity conference in Dubai on 8 March, Ehab Farouk Abd el-Aziz, manager of planning, Nrea, revealed that 900MW of renewable energy had already been installed, with 400MW under construction and a further 4,000MW in various stages of the planning and development phases.