Project's History
In the early years of the twentieth century, the dawn of solar energy on the banks of the Nile.
A genius in innovation with only three years of schooling from Philadelphia called Frank Schumann. Before he was thirty, Frank Schumann had invented safety glass, its use in vehicles and sky-light windows saved countless lives and made him a very rich man.
Schumann had enough money to pursue his real passion for solar energy. Schumann led the team of engineers and workers that designed and built rare solar energy concentrators that could power a steam engine. Using solar energy to irrigate the desert and turn it green, was Schumann's hope. Since Egypt was interested in agriculture, especially the cultivation of cotton, the official launch of Schumann's solar power plant in Egypt was a great success in 1913. On the afternoon of July 11, Schumann and his team invited a group of notables and writers to witness a test of his invention, which had been installed by the English company SunPower in Maadi. During that event, attendees witnessed the success of Schumann's invention.
The station had a practical way of utilizing solar energy on an industrial scale, making solar energy even cheaper than coal. It was the first industrial-sized solar power unit in the world in Maadi and contained five solar energy collectors, each 62 meters long and 4 meters wide. The units were separated by 7 meters. The design was modified from engines shipped from Tacony, and raw materials were produced on-site. The station was generating energy to power a 60-70 horsepower engine to pump 6000 gallons (27260 Liter) of water per minute that pumps water from the Nile River to the cotton fields. Egypt is the first country in the world to enter the field of solar and renewable energy by establishing the first solar power plant in the whole world in 1913.
It was an ideal source of energy in the desert regions, where imported coal is very expensive. Unfortunately, a year after the victory of the first solar power plant in the desert of Egypt, World War I broke out and solar collectors were recycled into weapons.
The dream of planting a solar power station has been porn after almost a century in Egypt, but this time it is hosted by Aswan. Benban Solar Park is a photovoltaic power station with a total capacity of 1650 MWp which corresponds to an annual production of approximately 3.8 TWh. It is located in Benban in the western desert, approximately 650 km south of Cairo and 40 km northwest of Aswan. Benban is currently the 4th largest solar power plant in the world.
