Egypt's first large-scale solar thermal facility is under construction in Kuraymat, 100 miles south of Cairo.
The Kuraymat project will be a hybrid power plant (natural gas and solar thermal), which will have a 150-megawatt capacity.
Overall, the power plant will have 2,000 solar collectors, whose mirrors will 130,000 square meters. The facility is being built by the Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority, and the solar technology is being provided by Flagsol, a company owned by Solar Millennium (ETR:S2M) and Ferrostaal.
The total cost of the Kuraymat solar thermal facility is estimated to be €250 million, and the project is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
The success of Kuraymat will offer a great litmus test for the massive DESERTEC solar scheme. As Dr. Thomas Thaufelder, Managing Director of Flagsol highlights: "we are quite proud that our pioneering work has been able to make a mark in Egypt -- also in view of the implementation of the DESERTEC concept.
The plan is to successfully generate solar power for use in North Africa before trying to export it to Europe, as laid out in the DESERTEC plans.
Read the full story at Solar Millennium: The assembly of all parabolic trough collectors in Egypt has been completed
Image courtesy of Solar Millennium
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Nathanael Baker is the Managing Editor of EnergyBoom. He has researched and reported on the issues of renewable energy, sustainability, and climate change for over two years. He has provided research to the New York Times and The Economist, as well as being published on different media outlets including, The Energy Collective.
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