Egypt’s Benban Solar Park turns sunlight in the desert into electricity
Benban Solar Park, near Aswan in southern Egypt, is one of the largest solar power plants in the world. The park lies in the Western Desert, part of the Sahara. The region receives abundant sunlight, which makes it well suited to large-scale solar electricity generation. However, high temperatures and airborne dust can reduce the efficiency of the solar panels and lower their energy output.
This false-colour image, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 5 November 2026, shows the solar park as a cluster of grey rectangular installations surrounded by pale desert terrain. Further south-east, a separate solar energy plant, Abydos 2, is also visible. To the west, circular agricultural fields appear predominantly grey and brown, while cultivated areas along the Nile River to the east appear bright red, indicating the presence of vegetation.
Copernicus Sentinel data support the monitoring of the environmental conditions which affect solar energy production. Researchers in the EU-funded CiROCCO project combine observations from the Copernicus Sentinel-2, Sentinel-3, and Sentinel-5P satellite missions with ground measurements to improve solar power forecasts, assess energy losses caused by dust, and help optimise maintenance planning at Benban.
