The world's largest solar farm rises in the remote Egyptian desert

By Rachel Scheier

Jul 30, 2018 | 3:00 AM

| Cairo

In 1913 on the outskirts of Cairo, an inventor from Philadelphia named Frank Shuman built the world’s first solar thermal power station, using the abundant Egyptian sunshine to pump 6,000 gallons of water a minute from the Nile to irrigate a nearby cotton field.

World War I and the discovery of cheap oil derailed Shuman’s dream of replicating his “sun power plant” on a grand scale and eventually producing enough energy to challenge the world’s dependence on coal.

More than a century later, that vision has been resurrected. The world’s largest solar park, the $2.8-billion Benban complex, is set to open next year 400 miles south of Cairo in Egypt’s Western Desert.

It will single-handedly put Egypt on the clean energy map.

That is no small feat for a country that’s been hobbled by its longtime addiction to cheap, state-subsidized fossil fuels and currently gets more than 90% of its electricity from oil and natural gas.

But the prospects for green energy here have never been better as the government has been scaling back fossil-fuel subsidies in line with an International Monetary Fund-backed reform program that aims to rescue an economy ravaged by political upheaval. Meanwhile, the rapidly falling cost of equipment for solar and wind power has increased their allure.

“This is a big deal,” said Benjamin Attia, a solar analyst with U.S.-based Wood Mackenzie, talking about the Benban complex. “I can’t think of another example where so many big players have come together to fill the gap.”

Officials and international finance organizations tout the potential of Egypt’s renewables sector to create jobs and growth as well as reduce emissions in a country whose capital was recently named the second-most polluted large city on Earth by the World Health Organization.

The government’s aim is that by 2025 Egypt will get 42% of its electricity from renewable sources.

The Benban complex, which will be operated by major energy companies from around the world, is expected to generate as much as 1.8 gigawatts of electricity, or enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. It will consist of 30 separate solar plants, the first of which began running in December, and employ 4,000 workers.

The U.S. government is backing a local program to train hundreds of technical school students in solar and wind energy.READ MORE!!!