Engie Inaugurates Egypt’s Largest and First Private Wind Project

Engie has now inaugurated the 262.5 MW Ras Ghareb wind park, Egypt’s first private and now the largest wind farm.

Engie has announced that the firm and its consortium partners have now inaugurated the 262.5 MW Ras Ghareb wind park, Egypt’s first private and now the largest wind farm.

Ras Ghareb project started commercial operation in October 2019, 6 weeks ahead of schedule. It is the first wind farm tendered on a Build-Own-Operate (BOO) scheme in the country and is part of the Egyptian government’s drive to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix with a target wind generation capacity of 7 GW by 2022.

The project company, Ras Ghareb Wind Energy SAE is owned by Engie (40 percent) and its consortium partners Toyota Tsusho Corporation/ Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation (40 percent) and Orascom Construction (20 percent). The total investment cost of the project is approximately USD 380 million.

Shankar Krishnamoorthy, Engie’s executive vice president said that the “Ras Ghareb wind farm illustrates our ambitious development strategy, aimed to accelerate the zero carbon transition of our clients. We are proud to contribute to the greening of Egypt’s energy mix and we are ready to further work with our partners towards the renewables’ objectives of the country.”

ENGIE has set a target of developing 9 GW of additional renewable capacity worldwide by 2021 and intends to invest approximately EUR 2.5 billion in the sector.

Last month, we had reported that the consortium had completed the construction and commissioning of the wind farm.

ENGIE Africa, CEO, Yoven Moorooven said at the time that “there is a huge potential for low-cost renewable energy in Africa. We are honoured that the Egyptian authorities have selected the ENGIE consortium to be part of their strategic energy plan.”

The consortium has also secured a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for the project. As per the 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), the power generated from the Engie Africa led consortium project will be supplied to the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC).

In September, the firm had announced that it had begun the construction work on the Campo Largo 2 Wind Farm, in the State of Bahia, Brazil. At 361.2 MW installed capacity, the project will be Engie’s worldwide biggest wind energy complex, to date.