Intro Group’s energy investments subsidiary Intro Energy alongside co-developer Gila AlTawakol Electric and technical partner Schneider Electric, have inaugurated a 5-megawatt solar power plant in Sharm El Sheikh, marking Intro Energy’s first foray into the renewable energy industry, Invest-Gate reports.

“These 5 megawatts coming online today are the first steps toward the construction of a comprehensive, large-scale presence as a platform for renewable energy solutions in the region,” Chairman of Intro Group Mamdouh Abbas said in a recently released statement.

“We are intensely focused on building an integrated and profitable renewables platform as a means of not only diversifying our footprint in the energy space and affording us with exposure to Egypt’s rapidly growing utility market, but to doing our part to help alleviate the national burden on the national grid,” Abbas noted.

The facility, which is set up under the feed-in tariff system, “brings online 10 gigawatt-hours of electricity and serves over 2,000 residential units, reducing annual carbon emissions by 3,506 tons,” according to the statement.  

Intro Energy and its partners are currently working on plans to raise the solar plant’s capacity to 40 megawatts. The facility is part of the state’s plans to raise Egypt’s use of renewable energy to 22% of all domestically produced energy by 2020.