The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has allocated up to $500 million for 2016 to finance Egypt's new solar energy programme, part of a governmental target to secure 20 percent of electricity from renewable sources, the bank said on Monday on its website.

The solar energy programme aims at constructing utility-scale solar projects within the private sector with a generating capacity of 2,000 megawatts, with many of them to be located in Upper Egypt, EBRD said.

“The EBRD expects to finance several such plants up to $500 million and to mobilise up to $1.5 billion in debt and equity from other financiers for these ventures. The total project cost is expected to be in the region of $4 billion,” the bank stated.

On Sunday, Egypt inaugurated the largest wind power station in the MENA region with a capacity of 200 MW in the Gabal El-Zeit area in the Red Sea governorate, with a total cost estimated at 270 million euros ($286 million), according to the Egyptian electricity ministry.