Cairo - Mubasher: Arabian Cement Company (ACC) has signed an amendment to its 2019 contract with Amarenco SolarizEgypt (ASE) to establish a solar photovoltaic (PV) plant at its Suez facility.

EGX-listed ACC penned another solar power purchasing contract for the second phase with ASE with an additional capacity of 13.20 megawatts of the project producing 25 GW/year, according to a press release on Monday.

As per the newly amended contract, ACC’s plant has reached a capacity of 20.60 MW after commissioning Phase 1, which has been in production since 2019, with a capacity of 7,441-kilowatt peak (kWp) which granted approximately 1,000 MW/month (MW/month), representing up to 3% of ACC’s overall electrical consumption.

The amendment to the agreement aligns with updated regulations recently issued by the Egyptian Electric Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency (EgyptERA) to encourage and support projects that use solar energy with the self-consumption system as Egypt hosts this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh.

Construction is set to begin in 12 weeks from the new contract’s date of signing for a forecasted period of 36 weeks. Actual commissioning and startup of operations are projected to start in September 2023.

In the first half (H1) of 2022, Arabian Cement turned profitable, gaining EGP 119.49 million in net earnings, versus net losses of EGP 23.28 million in H1-21, including minority shareholders’ rights.