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Saudi ACWA Power Signs $190 Mln Worth Solar Projects in Egypt

Saudi ACWA Power inked contracts worth 190 million dollars to generate solar power in Egypt.(ACWA Power's Twitter)
Saudi ACWA Power inked contracts worth 190 million dollars to generate solar power in Egypt.(ACWA Power's Twitter)
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Saudi ACWA Power Signs $190 Mln Worth Solar Projects in Egypt

Saudi ACWA Power inked contracts worth 190 million dollars to generate solar power in Egypt.(ACWA Power's Twitter)
Saudi ACWA Power inked contracts worth 190 million dollars to generate solar power in Egypt.(ACWA Power's Twitter)

Saudi ACWA Power inked on Tuesday contracts worth 190 million dollars to generate solar power in Egypt, announced the company.

ACWA Power has secured three solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant contracts in Egypt.

Located in Benban’s Aswan province, the PV power plants will boast an aggregate capacity of 165.5MWp, and will be developed at a total investment value of approximately $190 million (SAR712.5m).

"The Benban projects are significant for being ACWA Power’s first investment in the country and we are confident that we will have many more opportunities to partner with the Ministry of Electricity in its pursuit of energy security,” he said.

Hosted by the Government of Egypt, the power purchase agreement (PPA) was attended by Engineer Gamal Abd-Al Rehem, chairman of the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), and Mohammad Abunayyan, chairman of ACWA Power, as well as other dignitaries.

The deal, which was awarded under Round 2 of the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) program, will see the Saudi Arabia-based company develop, finance, build, own and operate the plants.

ACWA’s projects are in keeping with the Government of Egypt and Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy’s (MoERE) target to achieve 20 percent of its energy generation from renewable sources by 2022. The FiT program aims to secure an initial generation of 2,000MW of solar capacity and 2,000MW of wind capacity.

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 11 countries including in the Middle East and North Africa, Southern Africa and South East Asia regions.

Following the signing of the agreement, ACWA Power said that it expects to begin construction in the final quarter of this year. These will be the first projects that the company has developed in Egypt, and it is working with Egyptian companies Tawakol and Hassan Allam Holding to deliver them.

Once they begin operations next year, the plants will be expected to provide enough power for 80,000 homes, saving around 156,000 tons of CO2 per year when compared with conventional sources.

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Trump Exempts Mexico Goods from Tariffs for a Month, but Doesn’t Mention Canada

Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
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Trump Exempts Mexico Goods from Tariffs for a Month, but Doesn’t Mention Canada

Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said Mexico won't be required to pay tariffs on any goods that fall under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade until April 2, but made no mention of a reprieve for Canada despite his Commerce secretary saying a comparable exemption was likely.

"After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This Agreement is until April 2nd."

Earlier on Thursday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the one-month reprieve on hefty tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada that has been granted to automotive products is likely to be extended to all products that comply with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.

Lutnick told CNBC he expected Trump to announce that extension on Thursday, a day after exempting automotive goods from the 25% tariffs he slapped on imports from Canada and Mexico earlier in the week.

Trump "is going to decide this today," Lutnick said, adding "it's likely that it will cover all USMCA-compliant goods and services."

"So if you think about it this way, if you lived under Donald Trump's US-Mexico-Canada agreement, you will get a reprieve from these tariffs now. If you chose to go outside of that, you did so at your own risk, and today is when that reckoning comes," he said.

Nonetheless, Trump's social media post made no mention of a reprieve for Canada, the other party to the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Lutnick said his "off the cuff" estimate was that more than 50% of the goods imported from the two US neighbors - also its largest two trading partners - were compliant with the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Lutnick's comments "promising" in remarks to reporters in Canada.

"That aligns with some of the conversations that we have been having with administration officials, but I'm going to wait for an official agreement to talk about Canadian response and look at the details of it," Trudeau said. "But it is a promising sign. But I will highlight that it means that the tariffs remain in place, and therefore our response will remain in place."

Lutnick emphasized that the reprieve would only last until April 2, when he said the administration plans to move ahead with reciprocal tariffs under which the US will impose levies that match those imposed by trading partners.

In the meantime, he said, the current hiatus is about getting fentanyl deaths down, which is the initial justification Trump used for the tariffs on Mexico and Canada and levies on Chinese goods that have now risen to 20%.

"On April 2, we're going to move with the reciprocal tariffs, and hopefully Mexico and Canada will have done a good enough job on fentanyl that this part of the conversation will be off the table, and we'll move just to the reciprocal tariff conversation," Lutnick said. "But if they haven't, this will stay on."

Indeed, Trudeau is expecting the US and Canada to remain in a trade war.

"I can confirm that we will continue to be in a trade war that was launched by the United States for the foreseeable future," he told reporters in Ottawa.