Globeleq, an independent solar power producer, announced the acquisition of a 48.3% equity stake in the 25 MW Winnergy solar project in Egypt. The solar project was acquired from Enerray, Enerray Global Solar Opportunities, and Desert Technologies.
The solar project is already operational and is located in Egypt’s flagship Benban Solar complex, near Aswan, and is adjacent to Globeleq’s 66 MW ARC solar project. GILA Altawakol Electric (Altawakol), an Egyptian group in electrical engineering, equipment manufacturing, and services, remains the co-shareholder and operations and maintenance contractor.
Winnergy was financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), British International Investment (BII), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and Europe Arab Bank.
Mike Scholey, Chief Executive Officer of Globeleq, commented: “This transaction confirms Globeleq’s long-term commitment to Egypt, where the company has been investing for 20 years. The addition of Winnergy is a good fit with our existing portfolio as we pursue additional opportunities in Egypt across green hydrogen and ammonia, solar, wind, and desalination. Egypt is committed to an ambitious energy transition program, and we look forward to playing our part.”
The solar project was initially developed under the Egyptian government’s second Feed-in-Tariff initiative. The project provides approximately 58 GWh per year of clean electricity to the Egyptian Electricity and Transmission Company (EETC) under a 25-year power purchase agreement. This is sufficient to power around 13,600 residential consumers annually, thereby avoiding 30,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
According to Mercom’s Q1 2024 Solar Funding and M&A Report, almost 10.8 GW of solar projects were acquired in Q1 2024 compared to 11.9 GW in Q1 2023. In a QoQ comparison, 13.7 GW of solar projects were acquired in Q4 2023.
DWS, a German asset management company, finalized an agreement earlier this month to acquire a 147 MW solar project portfolio in Spain. The projects are acquired from X-ELIO, a global renewable energy developer.
