A financing structure built around Egypt's 1.1 GW Obelisk solar-plus-storage project is now being applied to additional projects in the country and is beginning to take hold in Jordan, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which describes the model as "a template, not a one-off".
Templates need a first proof. Obelisk is it: the 1.1 GW solar plant integrated with a 100 MW / 200 MWh BESS at Nagaa Hammadi, Upper Egypt, is Egypt's first hybrid solar-and-battery project to reach financial close — and, on the way, it became the test case for whether a battery can be financed inside a utility-scale solar structure in an emerging market. The answer, delivered in June 2025, was yes.
Norway's Scatec — already one of the largest independent power producers in Egypt — began construction on 5 May 2025, before the long-term debt was even signed. That unusual sequencing was made possible by US$120 million of equity bridge loans, including US$90 million from The Arab Energy Fund and US$30 million from the EBRD, which postponed project equity injections to the end of the construction period. Scatec itself delivers the EPC, asset management and O&M packages — roughly 70% of the total capex, put at about US$590 million.
Five weeks later, on 15 June 2025, came the signature that gave the project its name as a template: financial close on US$479.1 million of non-recourse debt from the EBRD, the African Development Bank and British International Investment — about 80% of capex, an unusually high leverage for a first-of-its-kind hybrid in the region. The energy is sold under a US dollar-denominated, 25-year PPA with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) backed by a sovereign guarantee, and the plant is being built in two phases: 561 MW of solar plus the BESS targeted for commercial operation in the first half of 2026, followed by 564 MW of solar in the second half.
The third signature came from the European Investment Bank, which signed US$150 million in additional financing on 30 December 2025 — announced at the project's inauguration in January 2026. By then, Obelisk was no longer a bet on a structure; it was a structure with an asset behind it, and the largest under-construction solar plant in Africa.
Obelisk's bankability rests on three pillars that emerging-market developers are now copying: a sovereign-backed, 25-year US dollar-denominated PPA with the EETC; BESS dispatch incorporated into the contracted structure rather than treated as an add-on; and a termination payment regime covering outstanding debt in the event of buyer default.
| Milestone | Date | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Construction start | 5 May 2025 | Scatec breaks ground; US$120m equity bridge loans (Arab Energy Fund US$90m, EBRD US$30m) defer equity to end of construction |
| Financial close | 15 June 2025 | US$479.1m non-recourse debt (EBRD, AfDB, BII) ≈ 80% of ~US$590m capex; 25-year USD PPA with EETC, sovereign-guaranteed |
| EIB financing | 30 December 2025 | US$150m signed; announced at inauguration January 2026 |
| COD targets | 2026 | Phase 1 (561 MW solar + 100 MW / 200 MWh BESS) H1 2026; Phase 2 (564 MW) H2 2026 |
Total blended debt financing amounts to US$479.1 million across four institutions and windows:
"The most acute risk is the counterparty offtaker risk," the EBRD's regional head of energy for the Middle East told pv magazine. "The sovereign guarantee mitigates this very important risk." Falling battery costs over the past three to four years, combined with energy security pressure from regional conflict, have made hybrid structures economically viable in markets where they were not before.
The pipeline behind the template is expanding quickly. Scatec has since signed a 25-year PPA for a separate 1.95 GW solar and 3.9 GWh BESS project in Egypt — the largest solar-plus-storage project on the continent — and the EBRD is working with a developer on an unannounced Egyptian project designed to deliver 24-hour baseload solar power, which it describes as the first of its kind in the region.
Capex is stated as ~US$590m in Scatec’s primary releases; EnterpriseAM rounds to US$600m and the EIB register lists US$598m. AfDB figures not independently verified against the full primary release.