German company wins contract to establish first solar-powered electric station

The Egyptian Ministry of Electricity announced today that the German company Siemens won a contract to establish the first private electric power station working by solar energy and natural gas.

18 US and European companies presented offers to establish the station at El-Korimat region at Gulf Suez, working on a system of generating electricity by sunlight in the morning and by natural gas at night.

The capacity of the station amounts to 150,000 kilowatts, and it will be established on the BOT (build-operate-transfer) system.

A private contract will be raised up for managing the station among Egyptian investors only for the first time since the steps were taken to privatize public utilities in Egypt.

Egyptian Minister of Electricity Maher Abaza told ArabicNews.com that there is a plan to build several similar stations in cooperation with the Egyptian private sector.