Egypt's foreign-currency crunch has solar developers concerned about financing new power plants.

Cairo Solar has lined up a $51 million loan from the International Finance Corp. for a planned 50-megawatt solar farm. Chairman Hisham Tawfik says he's worried about paying it back because the government has guaranteed payment for the electricity it will produce -in Egyptian pounds.

It's been more than four years since the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. The political upheaval has scared away outside investors and tourists, and Egypt's foreign reserves have dwindled to $16.6 billion, less than half 2010 levels. The central bank has imposed restrictions that make Tawfik's pounds difficult to convert to other currencies.

"How can I be happy if I have a lot of Egyptian pounds in the bank and I can't change them to dollars," Tawfik, who is also on the board of the Egyptian Renewable Energy Association, said in a phone interview.

More troubling is the possibility of a setback to Egypt's renewable energy program if the government won't provide payment in dollars, he said.

Central bank capital controls prevent local banks from lending in dollars for projects that will receive revenue in pounds. That, combined with limited access to international financing and other issues, is hindering Egypt's $13.5 billion program to boost its share of power generated by renewable sources to 20 percent in 2022, from about 12 percent.