Bahrain-headquartered Terra Sola Ventures (Terra Sola) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) for a $3.5bn project to develop 2,000MW of solar energy in Egypt.
The MOU confirms a mutually agreed roadmap for the development and implementation of the project which also includes the set-up of two European-technology manufacturing units for the production of photovoltaic modules and inverters.
Terra Sola is a part of consortium which also comprises Terra Nex Financial Engineering, a Swiss wealth management company that specialises in asset management and venture capital activities, a statement said.
At the end of 2013, Egypt had 31GW of total installed generating capacity, dominated by natural gas and oil. It had 552MW of wind and 20MW of solar generating capacity. The renewable component, including hydro, is projected to increase to 20 percent by 2020.
“2015 so far has been an incredible year and I am proud to say that Terra Sola has emerged,” said David Heimhofer, chairman of Terra Sola.
“When we founded the company in 2010 in Bahrain, the idea was to build a MENA-wide business that traverses boundaries but is based in a stable financial environment. Bahrain to us has been a great incubator and a central point from where we have increased our reach.”
He added: “Our milestone project will bring together solid European expertise including Swiss financial strength and German solar technical knowhow and has already attracted considerable interest from local and regional investment houses.”
Terra Sola, a developer and investor of solar power projects, also said it has increased its capital by over 35 percent to $18.5 million.
This latest increase in capital has been sourced primarily from the European market.
“In 2015, we plan to further increase our capital by an additional $50 million via a German stock listed entity in order to finance our expansion into other MENA countries,” said Heimhofer.
