INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Green Technology
Egypt commits to renewable
energy from solar and wind
power plants
F
ollowing the renewable energy trend across the world,
the Egyptian government has decided to pour in
billions of pounds for the development of solar and
wind power plants across the country.
The Middle East Solar Industry Association (MESIA) reports
that the Egyptian Government aspires to increase the
country’s energy dependency from renewable resources to
20% by 2022 and then increase it to 37% by 2035.
For Egypt, which presently manages 3% of electricity
generation from renewables, this is an ambitious goal but
the government is determined to look at the bigger picture.
In line with this vision there are several significant solar
and wind power plant projects in the pipeline to fulfil
this ambition.
The Ministry of Electricity in Egypt has revealed that
a number of projects will get underway soon on the
Northern coast, in the Western Desert, and in and around
the Suez Canal.
According to its spokesman, Ayman Hamza, the Egyptian
government has laid out a national plan to diversify the
electricity generation dependency on different resources
in order to achieve electricity independence.
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Hamza says that Egypt has the potential to become
the hub of International renewable energy due to the
location of the country.
It provides somewhere between 3,300 to 4,000 hours of
sunshine in a year and strong winds of an average speed
of 7 to 12 metres per second around the coastal areas.
Egypt’s solar market has taken a big step forward with the
signing of 400MW of PPAs by Scatec Solar and
its partners.
Scatec signed contracts for six projects that it will build,
own and operate.
Raymond Carlsen, CEO, Scatec Solar, said: “With this
programme the Government of Egypt is making important
steps towards accessing clean and low cost electricity to
drive development and economic prosperity.
“Scatec Solar and partners are making significant
investments and a long term commitment
to Egypt.”
MESIA has predicted a 4GW pipeline for the MENA region
in 2017 with Egypt making a major contribution to
that tally. ¡
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