The electricity ministry is set to sign a final contract with China’s Shanghai Electric to build a series of “clean” coal power stations with a total generation capacity of 2.6 GW in the district of Al Hamrawein during President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s visit to China in September, Al Borsa reported on Monday. The USD 3 bn power stations will be funded by the Chinese firm with low-interest financing from three Chinese banks; the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company is set to repay the amount over 15 years. The EEHC signed a conditional EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract (pdf) with Shanghai Electric in January during El Sisi’s last visit, an agreement which was conditional on the completion of technical studies. A conditional EPC contract (pdf) was also signed with Dongfang during the same visit.

For context: There is no such thing as “clean” coal plants; perhaps “cleaner coal” would be a rather less misleading name. The phrase is a blanket term used to describe differing technologies — including everything from carbon-capture to burning coal at higher temperatures and pressures — all of which attempt to mitigate the effect of burning coal with various degrees of efficacy. With regard to the contracts signed with Dongfang and Shanghai Electric, the project sets out to build six sets of 660 MW ultra-supercritical (USC) coal-fired power stations over two phases. USC coal plants operate at temperatures and pressures higher than that of the subcritical plants built in the 1960s-70s and supercritical plants of the 2000s, resulting in an increased efficiency in burning coal by several percentage points, according to a 2013 report (pdf) from the International Energy Agency. Increased efficiency, in turn, produces less carbon emissions, hence the “clean” moniker pushed by those such as the global coal lobby the World Coal Association.