Site IT support at Benban Solar Park

I provided local IT support at Benban Solar Park in Egypt from its early stages. My contribution centred on supporting IT infrastructure at the site.

Benban brings together multiple power plants near Aswan. In its October 2017 account, IFC described a development covering approximately 37 square kilometres, with 32 power plants planned across the site. Individual companies and partnerships contributed to the wider park.¹

The development was part of a change in Egypt's electricity sector. IFC described a government programme intended to encourage private companies to build generating capacity, supported by reforms and international finance. Each plant contributed to the larger park, while its financing and delivery remained associated with particular companies and partnerships.¹

That structure is visible in the financing announced during construction. IFC and a consortium of lenders pledged $653 million to help 13 private companies build and operate plants at Benban. The funding was one part of the wider development, illustrating how the park took shape through multiple investments.¹

On 24 October 2019, Africa50 announced that its consortium's six plants, totalling 390 MW, had entered commercial operation. Those plants formed one part of the larger Benban park. Africa50 had joined Scatec Solar and Norfund in a development agreement in April 2017, followed by financial close that October. Its announcement provides one example of the partnerships behind the development.²

EBRD records that all of Benban's solar plants were connected to Egypt's national grid in 2019. It lists a contracted capacity of 1,465 MW for the park, while its completion coverage describes the overall scale as approximately 1.5 GW. These are whole-park figures, providing context for the individual projects and teams working there.³⁴