Developer AMEA Power will collaborate with Trinasolar and Energy China ZTPC to install battery storage at a 500MW solar PV plant in Egypt, Africa.
Trinasolar announced the partnership yesterday (23 December), with the China-headquartered vertically integrated solar PV manufacturer set to provide the 300MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) at AMEA Power’s Abydos Solar Power Plant.
Dubai-based AMEA Power has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for Abydos in the southern city of Aswan with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company.
A press release claimed Abydos to be Egypt’s largest single-site solar PV plant. Norwegian developer Scatec brought a project in Kenhardt, South Africa, into operation earlier this year. That project features 540MW of solar generation capacity along with 225MW/1,140MWh of battery storage, but it is spread across three sites.
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The Abydos PV project was recently inaugurated with a ceremony attended by dignitaries, including Egypt’s prime minister, Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, and its minister of electricity and renewable energy, Dr. Mahmoud Esmat.
Trinasolar will supply its Elementa 2 containerised battery storage solution to the project’s expansion phase. Elementa 2 uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells and has 5MWh storage capacity per 20-foot standardised enclosure.
The PV manufacturer launched its BESS system integrator subsidiary Trina Storage in 2021 and uses in-house manufactured LFP cells in its projects (Premium access). The project for AMEA Power marks Trinasolar’s first energy storage project in the Middle East and Africa region.
To date, Trina Storage has delivered several gigawatt-hours of BESS projects in China and the UK. It recently inaugurated its first projects in the US and won contracts in European countries, including Germany and Italy.
Its parent company has also turned developer of gigawatt-hour-scale battery projects in Australia, recently lodging planning applications for a 2.6GWh BESS project in Western Australia and another 1GWh project in Victoria.
Meanwhile, partner Energy China ZTPC is a subsidiary of Energy China Construction Group, a Chinese state-owned enterprise specialised in engineering and construction of fossil fuel and nuclear thermal power plants, renewable energy, power plant maintenance and construction, and power grids.
AMEA Power is set to embark on an even bigger project in the North African country, having signed another PPA with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) for a 1GW solar PV project in Benban, also in Aswan Governate in Egypt’s western desert, which will feature a 600MWh BESS.
Benban is also the location for a 1.8GW PV park complex, currently under construction in phases, but again, this comprises more than a dozen separate plants from different developers rather than representing a single-site power plant.
Rival developer Scatec also signed a PPA in September with the EETC for a 1GW solar power plant, this time featuring a smaller BESS at 100MW/200MWh of planned output and capacity, as reported by our colleagues at PV Tech.
