Climate Investment Funds give green light to revised solar plan for MENA region

May 8, 2013 - The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) have given the green light to a massive project involving six countries from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) which will carry out an updated version of a plan aimed at creating 1,120 MW of energy from concentrated solar power (CSP) in the region.
Thus, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia will get USD 660 million (EUR 503m) from CIF's Clean Technology Fund, while another USD 5 billion will come from donors and private financing.
Under the plan, Morocco will obtain USD 218 million from the Clean Technology Fund for 300 MW capacity; Egypt will get USD 123 million; Tunisia will have USD 62 million and Jordan will receive USD 50 million.
A total of USD 10 million will be provided for technical assistance.
The plan, first accepted by CIF in 2009, has undergone some changes after the Arab Spring events in the region to reflect the new political and economic conditions in each country.
The original plan projected a total of 895 MW of power but now the region expects to achieve 1.12 GW.
The revised plan envisages a realignment of projects based on each country's reassessed needs, focus on well-performing projects, inclusion of different business models, among which public-private partnerships (PPPs) and independent power producers (IPPs).
(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.762)

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