INVESTMENT WATCH- Al Nowais to build two wind, solar energy plants worth EGP 16 bn: Egypt yesterday signed an agreement with UAE’s Al Nowais Investments to build two renewable energy plants worth a combined EGP 16 bn, according to a cabinet statement. The company will build a 200 MW solar plant in Aswan and a 500 MW wind plant in Ras Ghareb. The plants will be built under a build-own-operate framework that will see Egypt pay 2.48 cents per KW of solar energy and 3.1 cents per KW of wind power. Al Nowais will begin work on the plants in 1Q2020, unnamed Electricity Ministry sources tell the local press. Reuters also had the story.

Background: Al Nowais bid in October to build USD 700 mn in renewable energy plants just two weeks after Egypt pulled the plug on the company’s USD 4 bn, 2.65 GW coal station in Oyoun Mousa. The ministry cited cost, the country’s electricity surplus and the government’s focus on renewables as reasons for killing the project, which had been through more than three years of planning and negotiations.