Silk Road Fund to invest in Middle East projects

Subscribe to our newsletter and get the latest news and business opportunities in your inbox
Silk Road Fund to invest in Middle East projects

China's Silk Road Fund and ACWA Power have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Riyadh to jointly develop and invest in power projects in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and the region.

According to the terms of the MoU, ACWA Power will agree to pursue the successful implementation and development of projects, and Silk Road Fund will agree to make equity investments in the projects, and provide the necessary debt financing. The project included in the MOU are the Hassyan Clean Coal Power Plant in UAE, and the Dairut Combined Cycle Power Plant in Egypt, jointly developed by ACWA Power.

The Hassyan clean-coal power plant will use clean coal as feedstock for electricity generation. The new clean coal fired power generation facility, with an aggregate capacity of 1,200 MW, will be located at the Saih Shuaib area on the Arabian Gulf coast in the Emirate of Dubai and is due to be commissioned before the summer of 2020.

The project is supported by a 25-year Power Project Agreement (PPA). The bidder has been required to put in place arrangements for the assured delivery of coal to the project over the life of the agreement. The first phase of the project comprises two units of 600 MW each and will be operational by March 2020 and March 2021, respectively.

The combined-cycle power plant will be developed at Dairut on a build-own-operate basis. The plant is likely to have capacity of 1500 MW, consisting of two 750 MW units. However, developers could propose a different configuration using three 750 MW units, which would take capacity of the project to 2250 MW.

ACWA Power is a developer, investor, co-owner and operator of a portfolio of power generation and desalinated water production plants currently with presence in 12 countries including in the West Asia, North Africa, Southern Africa and South East Asia regions. 

Silk Road Fund is a medium to long term development and investment fund established in December 2014. It mainly provides investment and financing support for trade and economic cooperation and connectivity under the framework of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative. 

Share this news

Join us

In order to get full access to News section, you must have a full subscription. You can check all the benefits of becoming a member and purchase a subscription on our membership page.