Egypt to Construct 500 MW Wind Power Farm in Gulf of Suez Region

Ahram Online 

Thursday 14 Oct 2021

The Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy and a multinational consortium signed two agreements on Wednesday planning a wind power farm with a capacity of 500 megawatts in the Gulf of Suez region.

Egypt

Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly witnesses the signing of two agreements between Electricity Ministry and a consortium of Orascom Construction, French ENGIE, and Japan's Tsusho Corporation in Cairo to Develop a Wind Farm in the Gulf of Suez. 

According to a statement by the cabinet on Thursday, the consortium consists of Egypt’s Orascom Construction, France’s ENGIE, and Japan’s Toyota Tsusho Corporation.

The project will cost around $600 million, the statement quoted Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker, who attended the signing ceremony, as saying.

The commercial operation of the project is expected to start in 2024, the minister noted.

The project will achieve carbon dioxide (CO2) savings estimated at about one million tons annually, Shaker said.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Japan’s Ambassador to Cairo Masaki Noke and Deputy French Ambassador in Egypt François Legué attended the signing ceremony.

The project will also secure 1,100 direct job opportunities during the construction phase in addition to a large number of other job opportunities in related services, Shaker noted, adding that some of the project’s equipment will be locally manufactured.

Orascom revealed in a statement on Thursday it would carry out construction of the wind farm and will have a 25% stake in the project. It said that it would develop, construct and operate for 20 years the wind farm located in Ras Ghareb, Red Sea governorate.

Orascom added the project would triple the consortium's wind energy capacity to more than 750 MW.

In late 2019, the same multinational consortium inaugurated a 262.5 MW wind plant in Ras Ghareb, Egypt’s first private and largest wind farm.

The electricity ministry’s cooperation with the private sector is part of Egypt’s strategy to raise the country’s electricity generation capacity from renewable sources to 42 percent by 2035, Shaker affirmed.

Egypt inaugurated in 2018 a 220 MW wind plant at Gabal Al-Zeit in the Gulf of Suez, financed by soft loans from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Egypt has taken big steps to increase the total energy produced from renewables, including the establishment of one of the world's largest solar parks at Benban in Upper Egypt’s Aswan.

Egypt has advanced from 26th place in 2020 to 20th in 2021 among the world’s top 40 markets in the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI), which was released in June.