Egypt’s Highly-Anticipated Benban Solar Park Is Finally Complete
Back in July, the Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker announced that Egypt’s Benban Solar Park will be the largest of its kind in Africa.
Over the course of the park’s development, the project has created more than 20,000 job opportunities, with priority given to Aswan’s inhabitants. At the same time, the Egyptian government has handpicked a group of 39 chief developers from both local and international backgrounds to directly oversee construction.
The USD four-billion project has been under development for about two years now and is expected to produce around 1.5 gigawatts per day. Aswan’s Benban was chosen as the solar park’s setting because of its excellent solar location.
The establishment of Benban’s Solar Park comes in line with Egypt’s Vision 2030, in which the country aims to achieve 20 percent of its electricity needs from renewable sources by 2022.
Previously, Engineer Mohammed Amara, project manager of Infinity Station at Benban Solar Park, estimated that the newly-established park could produce up to 90 percent of Aswan Dam’s total energy output.
The solar panels at Benban are expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 1.9 million tons a year and power around 1,000,000 Egyptian homes.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development released a video yesterday, showing a timelapse from space of the development from 2017 until our present-day of what they dubbed a ‘modern-day miracle’.
