EBRD Backs Alcazar’s 500 MW Egypt Wind Farms and Benban Solar With Storage
The Takeaway: Alcazar Energy Partners has reached financial close on the 500 MW Niat and Rasgha wind farms at Ras Ghareb on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, a $626 million project. Its debt is shared equally by the EBRD, the European Investment Bank and DEG, with the EBRD lending up to $145 million. The same day, the EBRD announced up to $63.5 million of financing, including Clean Technology Fund money, for a Benban solar plant with battery storage, one of the first in Egypt. Both projects will sell their power to the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company under 25-year agreements, and the wind farms are due to start commercial operation by the end of 2028.
The EBRD announced up to $201 million of its own lending on Monday for two wind farms on Egypt’s Red Sea coast and a Benban solar plant with battery storage.
For Egypt’s power system, the two deals add 500 MW of wind moving into construction and one of the first solar plants in the country to include battery storage. In The Edge’s reading, the structure matters as much as the size: splitting the wind debt in equal thirds between three development lenders, with European Union guarantees behind part of it, spreads the risk of a large private power project across several balance sheets.
Alcazar closes the financing for 500 MW at Ras Ghareb
Alcazar Energy Partners, an independent infrastructure fund manager, announced the financial close of the Niat and Rasgha wind projects in Ras Ghareb. Each farm has a capacity of 250 MW and a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company.
The total project cost is $626 million. Debt of $436 million, or 69.6% of that cost, comes in equal thirds from the EBRD, the European Investment Bank and DEG, the German development finance institution in the KfW Group.
The European Union backs part of the lending with guarantees under its European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus. The EBRD describes the cover on its own financing as first-loss risk cover under the fund’s HI-BAR programme.
The EBRD’s share is two loans of up to $75 million to Niat for Wind Energy and up to $70 million to Alcazar Rasgha Energy. Both companies are owned by Alcazar Energy Partners II, a clean energy investment fund.
Niat and Rasgha wind farms at financial close
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 2 farms of 250 MW |
| Total project cost | $626 million |
| Debt | $436 million |
| EBRD loans | up to $145 million |
| Power buyer | EETC, 25 years |
| Expected output | more than 2.3 TWh a year |
| Commercial operation | by the end of 2028 |
EETC is the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company. Cost, debt, output and timing as given by Alcazar Energy Partners; loan amounts as given by the Bank.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has received notice to proceed. It will supply the turbines and provide operation and maintenance, while Orascom Construction will act as the balance of plant contractor.
The Bank says the deal brings Siemens Gamesa back to the Egyptian market as a turbine supplier, which will broaden the pool of suppliers and add competition. Siemens Gamesa says Niat and Rasgha will be its tenth wind project in Egypt, where it has worked since 2004.
The wind farms are due to start operating by the end of 2028
The farms are expected to generate more than 2.3 TWh of electricity a year. That implies a capacity factor above 52.5%, on The Edge’s calculation, or more than 4,600 hours a year at full output.
The project cost works out at $1.25 million per megawatt of capacity. Alcazar puts the emissions avoided at nearly 1.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year; the EBRD’s figure is an estimated 979,700 tonnes.
The projects should support an estimated 45 direct operational jobs, the company says, in addition to temporary jobs during construction.
DEG, one of the three lenders, gives different totals in its own release. It puts total investment costs at an estimated $580 million, with an estimated $437 million provided in equal shares. Its own two loans to the farms total $145.5 million.
The fund manager counts more than $1 billion of investment in Egypt’s electricity sector once the separately signed $420 million Gabal El Zeit privatisation is added. Those agreements were signed in July 2026, and that transaction is moving toward its own project finance close.
The combined figure, $1.05 billion on The Edge’s sum, includes project and transaction values, debt and equity. The IMF’s account of Egypt’s asset sales, set out here on 15 August, put divestment proceeds at an estimated $520 million after a Gabal El Zeit transaction and the Ministry of Finance’s share sales.
Alcazar’s second fund, Alcazar Energy Partners II, closed with $490 million of commitments in May 2024. It is expected to mobilise an estimated $2 billion of investment, after its first fund mobilised an estimated $750 million in wind and solar assets.
The EBRD adds solar with storage at Benban
The Benban package of up to $63.5 million goes to Nefer Benban for Renewable Energy, a project company owned by Infinity Power and Hassan Allam Utilities Energy. It combines up to $56 million of the EBRD’s own funds with up to $7.5 million of concessional money from the Clean Technology Fund of the Climate Investment Funds.
The concessional part is 11.8% of the package. DEG is lending an equal amount, which brings the aggregate debt to up to $127 million.
The 258.5 MWp solar plant will be paired with a 120 MWh battery, making it one of the first solar plants in Egypt with storage, the Bank says. The battery will store surplus daytime output and release it during peak demand after sunset.
The plant will sell its power to the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company under a 25-year agreement, at a cost below that of conventional generation, the Bank says. It is expected to cut CO2 emissions by more than 349,000 tonnes a year and to power an estimated 310,000 homes.
EBRD-backed financing for the three Egyptian projects (in $ millions)
| Borrower | Project | Up to |
|---|---|---|
| Niat for Wind Energy | Niat wind, 250 MW | 75.0 |
| Alcazar Rasgha Energy | Rasgha wind, 250 MW | 70.0 |
| Nefer Benban, EBRD funds | Benban solar with storage | 56.0 |
| Nefer Benban, CTF | Benban solar with storage | 7.5 |
| Total | 208.5 |
All amounts are maximums. CTF is the Clean Technology Fund (concessional). The separate $65 million construction bridge loan of April 2026 is not included.
The EBRD had already agreed a $65 million construction bridge loan with HAU Energy in April 2026 for the same plant. That loan was set out here on 20 October, when the plant was described as 200 MW of solar.
DEG’s release also uses 200 MW, while the Bank now gives 258.5 MWp, a peak rating.
Infinity Power, set up in 2019 by Infinity and Masdar, and HAU Energy, owned by Meridiam, Hassan Allam Utilities and the EBRD, are the same two developers behind the Minya solar and storage project covered in that 20 October piece.
The Benban financing sits within the energy pillar, led by the EBRD, of Egypt’s Nexus of Water, Food and Energy initiative. The initiative aims to support the deployment of 10 GW of new privately developed renewable capacity and the closure of 5 GW of inefficient fossil fuel capacity.
The EBRD has invested more than €16 billion in Egypt since it began operating there in 2012. Its count stands at 238 projects. The Clean Technology Fund will also pay for two accredited green skills training programmes for young job seekers in Aswan governorate.
What to watch: End of 2028: expected start of commercial operation at the Niat and Rasgha wind farms.
Figures are from Alcazar Energy Partners’ release of 9 November 2026, the EBRD’s releases of 9 November 2026 on the Egypt wind farms and on the Benban solar and storage plant, and DEG’s release of 9 November 2026; percentages, sums and ratios not attributed to a source are The Edge’s calculations.
Sources: EBRD, Alcazar Energy Partners, DEG, The Edge.
