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The company that helped build Egypt's infrastructure for nearly 90 years is now playing a central role in powering it.
Hassan Allam Holding, the Cairo-based engineering and construction group led by CEO Hassan Allam, has signed an agreement with China's Sineng Electric to supply 249 megawatts of central inverters to the Benban Solar Park in Aswan. The 1.65-gigawatt facility ranks among the largest solar power plants anywhere in the world and sits at the heart of Egypt's push to diversify its national energy mix.
Under Hassan Allam's leadership since taking the helm in 2009, the group has grown its project backlog more than tenfold, from $500 million to over $5.5 billion, expanding from a single-country operation into a presence across 10 countries on three continents. Benban represents a signature chapter in that trajectory, with Hassan Allam Utilities, the group's investment and development arm, having been a developer and operator at the site since its earliest phases.
The Sineng deal adds a technically sophisticated layer to that commitment. Sineng will deliver 27 units of 8.8-megawatt medium-voltage turnkey stations and two units of 4.4-megawatt MV turnkey stations, each integrating a central inverter, power transformer and medium-voltage switchgear into a single compact system. The units are engineered to run at full capacity without derating at ambient temperatures up to 52 degrees Celsius, a non-negotiable requirement for a desert site where summer heat is relentless. An IP65 protection rating guards against dust and sand ingress, while a DC/AC ratio of up to 1.8 maximizes energy yield and pushes down the long-term cost of electricity from the installation.
Steven Chen, general manager for Sineng Electric's Middle East and Africa region, described the partnership as a contribution to Egypt's broader energy transition. "By working closely with partners such as Hassan Allam, Sineng Electric continues to contribute to scaling up adoption of renewable energy, supporting Egypt's national energy transition roadmap, and advancing the development of a secure, diversified, and future-ready power system," he said.
The park sits in Aswan's western desert, approximately 650 kilometres south of Cairo, in a region with some of the highest solar irradiation levels in the country. Once fully operational, it is expected to generate approximately 3.8 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to supply hundreds of thousands of Egyptian households. The project is a cornerstone of Egypt's Nubian Suns Feed-in Tariff programme, launched in 2014 under a national strategy targeting 42 percent of electricity from renewables by 2035.
For a company that traces its roots to a 19-year-old from Port Said who moved to Cairo and started an informal contracting firm over a century ago, the Benban partnership is another marker of how far the Allam name has traveled. Hassan Allam Holding now employs more than 50,000 people and ranks among the top 250 global contractors. Benban, by any measure, is exactly the kind of project that belongs on that list.
