Benban solar park is a powerful complex of 41 solar power plants being developed in Benban, located in the Aswan governorate, Egypt. Benban is touted to become the biggest solar photovoltaic park in the world, upon completion.

State-owned New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) is overseeing the 1.8GW project, which includes a number of small solar power plants being developed by different companies at a total cost of $4bn.

The project is a part of Egypt’s Nubian Suns Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (FiT) programme announced in September 2014, which is in line with the Egyptian government’s Sustainable Energy Strategy 2035 that aims to produce 20% of electricity from renewable sources by 2022.

The first phase of the solar park included Infinity Solar’s 50MW solar power plant, which commenced operations in March 2018. The entire solar park has been completed in 2019.

It will produce more than 4TWh of power, once fully operational, and prevent two million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. The Government of Egypt has provided 37.2km² of land to NREA in Benban, in the town of Daraw Markaz of Upper Egypt, for the development of the Benban solar park.

The 41 solar power plants will be developed on plots ranging from 0.3km² to 1.0km² in size. Each plant will be equipped with photovoltaic (PV) panels mounted on fixed, immovable frames, which will be laid in arrays. The PV panels will range in size from 1,200x600mm to 2,000mmx1,000mm.

The arrays will be connected to inverters for converting the direct current (DC) power to alternating current (AC) power, which will be transferred by a transformer to the nearby power grid for distribution.

A control center will be constructed at the site, which will house the monitoring and communication equipment for the substations. A 16km water supply pipeline from the Nile river is being laid to supply the water required for operations at the site.

According to nsenergybusine