Twenty solar energy companies may quit phase one of the feed-in-tariff program following their “sit-down” with Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker on Thursday, Al Borsa reported. Representatives from the companies said they lost faith in the government and believe it is deliberately trying to sabotage their projects. Shaker is trying to impose a financing structure that limits the investors’ access to local banks to just 15% of the total cost of their projects. The original contracts have not imposed any specific financing structure on them, the FiT companies said, so having the Ministry require them to seek 85% of their funding from foreign banks is essentially “illegal,” they argue. Readers will remember that international lenders have pulled their backing for phase one thanks to the state’s insistence on domestic arbitration of any disputes that may arise.

Cairo Solar has already decided to withdraw, Al Borsa reports, quoting Chairman Hisham Tawfik as saying the company’s board of directors has voted to shelve a USD 100 mn project for a 50 MW solar power station in Benban, Aswan. “How can we secure 85% of our funding from international institutions when they are refusing to agree to domestic arbitration clauses?” Tawfik asked.

…Also confirmed withdrawing from first phase: ACWA Power, OTMT, and the SunEdison-Orascom Construction consortium have all confirmed they are withdrawing from the first phase of the feed-in-tariff project and waiting for announcements on phase two, Al Mal reports. Norway’s Scatec Solar is also considering exiting phase one and hasn’t said whether it will stick around to discuss phase two, company sources tell Al Borsa. As we had previously reported, both Abdul Latif Jameel and Italy’s Enel Green Power also pulled out of the program when it became clear the state had effectively made it impossible to get project financing.

Going against the mold was Infinity Solar, which has declared that it intends to carry on with phase one and is in talks with insurance firms to insure any financing from German banks under the 85% foreign funding condition imposed by the minister, Al Borsa quotes company GM Nayer Fouad as saying.