French multinational electric utility company Engie will construct various renewable energy projects in Egypt after signing agreement with the government.
The agreement which was signed during a visit by French president François Hollande in Cairo will see Egypt’s power sector get a major boost.
The company, formerly GDF Suez, announced two energy deals. The first is a joint cooperation agreement for further development of renewable energy with the National Renewable Energy Association (NREA) and the Egyptian Electricity Transport Company (EETC). The second agreement was signed between Engie and the Egyptian National Gas Holding Company to import liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The agreements come amongst a US$2 billion range of deals in energy, defence, security and other fields.
These deals are a continuation of Engie’s headway into the Egyptian space; as the company and its partners have already initiated a number of renewable energy projects there, securing the financing, construction and O&M of two 50MW PV plants in Benban under the FIT scheme. In addition, Engie has launched two 50MW FIT projects and a ‘West of Nile’ complex where the company has received the green light for wind, solar PV and concentrated solar power build-own-operate (BOO) projects. One in the works is located in the Gulf of Suez, where Engie is partnering with Egyptian construction company group Orascom and Toyota Tsusho on a 250MW BOO wind project.
These projects are part of the Egyptian government’s ambition to have renewables account for 20% of the energy mix by 2022.
The French energy company has been rapidly expanding its energy project reach this year. It recently won a 23MW solar project in Baja California in Mexico’s recent energy auction, with subsidiary SolaireDirect winning a 75MW solar project in Uttar Pradesh last month. Fellow subsidiary E-CL also made progress in the emerging market space; securing a connection project in Chile to connect the Northern Interconnected System grid (SING) with the Central Interconnected System grid (SIC) also last month.
