Egypt’s Benban solar park, the world’s largest solar installation, is on track to begin operation next year.

The $2.8 billion, 1.8 GW installation sits on a 14.4 square-miles plot in Egypt’s Western Desert, 400 miles south of Cairo. The main plot is divided into 30 separate plots, each of which supports a solar plant.

Benban has a planned total capacity of 1,650 MWp, equating to an annual output of around 3.8 TWh. The solar park will distribute power via four new substations built by the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC).

Benban’s first individual solar plant began operation in December. When completed the solar park is expected to employ 4,000 workers.

Egypt’s longstanding reliance on oil and natural gas for power generation has recently been offset by heavy renewables investment. In 2008 the country’s Supreme Council of Energy set a goal to increase renewable generation to 20 percent of the total mix by 2020, with a long-term goal of 42 percent by 2025. The Benban park benefits from the country’s Nubian Suns feed-in tariff program, which is designed to spur renewables development in support of the 2020 goal.

Egypt’s renewables mix is dominated by hydropower, but the country has high solar availability and wind resources on the Red Sea coast. According to a 2012 African Development Bank report, wind power is expected to provide up to 12 percent of total generation by 2020, with the remaining eight percent of renewable power provided by hydro and solar installations.