It’s not just the private sector with sizable solar panel factories in the pipeline. State-owned Arab Organization for Industrialization’s (AOI) joint solar panel manufacturing project with Sweden’s Sunshine Pro is set to be operational in July of this year and have a production capacity of 1 GW of panels by July 2026, AOI’s Arab Renewable Energy Company Executive Director Ghada El Gendy told Al Mal. The ownership division was not specified.

Remember: The two companies inked an agreement last month to build the plant — dubbed the Arab-Swedish Energy Factory (ASEF).

The project is expected to cost somewhere between USD 200-300 mn, El Gendy told the outlet. How the two companies will be sharing the financing or what other parties have been tapped to chip in is yet to emerge.

Every single solar panel produced by the factory will be shipped off to Europe, as the project is dedicating the entirety of its production to export. Exporting production will also ensure that the factory has the needed hard currency to import the raw input materials needed.

Localizing the production of solar power components is a top priority for the government, with the government naming solar cells in October as among 12 products that it wants to begin manufacturing locally. Naming solar cells early on in its target of localizing 152 industries by 2030 is not insignificant.

The first of many? AOI is ready to establish more partnerships with both foreign and Arab investors on solar panel production, AOI head Mokhtar Abdel Latif told Al Mal — highlighting it as a promising industry for Egypt.

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