Egypt Looks to Construct Two Large Solar, Wind Projects

The Egyptian government is mulling over the development of two large renewable energy projects to cut its reliance on fossil fuel based power according to reports. Two solar and wind energy plants will be constructed in the North African Arab.

The New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), which is mandated with the development of clean and green energy sources of energy, revealed the plan of the two projects in a meeting in Cairo when it presented its annual report. The NERA report consists of projects under study, under development and the completed projects.

NREA outlined the two planned projects as ‘under study.’ The solar power plant that could be developed will have a generation capacity of 830 MW and a wind energy project would generate about 1,700 MW.

The twin renewable energy projects are a part of the strategy of Egypt to raise the share of renewables in its energy mix by 45 percent in 2035, reports say.

Two more wind energy projects have been approved for construction by the Egyptian government. One is a 1,375 MW wind energy project in Zafarana. The other is a EUR 1.35 billion facility in Jebel El-Zeit in the Western Red Sea Governorate.

The report of NERA also speaks about two RE projects that are now complete. The Benban Solar Park in the Southern Aswan Governorate has been constructed with an investment of $2.2-billion that will have the energy generation capacity of about 1,465 MW. This solar park was built by as many as 32 companies of both domestic and foreign origin.

Egypt’s Renewable Rush

Earlier this year, the Electricity and Renewable Energy Ministry of Egypt said that it plans to generate about 10,000 MW renewable energy projects in 2023 including green hydrogen and green ammonia. Subsequently, it allocated about 5,200 sq km of area in different parts of Egypt to establish RE projects by the private sector. ReNew Power, based in India’s Gurgaon, signed a MoU with the Egyptian authorities for the development of projects in Egypt for the production of green fuels by investing a massive $8 billion.