The Egyptian regime is investing billions of dollars into new renewable energy projects in order to facilitate the development of wind and solar power plants across the country.
Egypt has committed to increase its share of renewables in the country’s power mix to 20 per cent by 2022 and 37 per cent by 2035.
Also read:Multi-national investors eye Egypt’s solar feed-in tariff project
At present, the nation only sources around 3 per cent of its electricity generation from renewables.
To achieve its ambitious targets, the government plans to invest heavily in the renewable energy sector and to develop wind and solar energy plants across the country.
A number of renewable projects are scheduled for development in the Western Desert, on the northern coast and near the Suez Canal.
Ayman Hamza, Spokesman for the Ministry of Electricity, said: “Utilising renewable energy is part of a national plan to diversify electricity generation sources to meet growing demand and secure the continuity of the electricity supply…Egypt has a great, untapped potential to turn into an international renewable energy hub.”
The North African nation is ideally placed for renewable energy generation with a high sunshine duration of around 3,300 to 4,000 hours and high wind potential across Egypt’s coast, which experience average wind speeds of 7-12 metres per second.
To date, nine government agencies in the country have signed contracts to buy renewable electricity.
According to a report published earlier this year, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have more than 5.7 gigawatts (GW) of solar energy capacity in the pipeline.
Egypt is considering building a new station to produce electricity from solar energy with a yearly capacity of 1 GW, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation on Wednesday.
The arrangement also consist of building a new factory to produce solar panels from silica sand, which will be used in setting up the new station, according to the statement.
No further financial details of the project were disclosed.
