The government of Egypt is set to install solar power plants with a combined capacity of 500MW across the country. This is after a new contract was initialed and signed between the government and China Gezhouba Group; the company tasked with implementing the project. The contract covers the design, construction, equipment procurement, installation, and commissioning and maintenance of all the solar power plants.
The deal which was made public by China energy Engineering Corporation; the holding company, is expected to run for a period of 3 years for an amount of US $290.8m. The project will boost Egypt’s efforts of increasing the percentage of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix to 42% by 2035.
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China Gezhouba Group
China Gezhouba group company Limited is a subsidiary of the China Energy Engineering Corporation. In 2018, this company had already collaborated with Egypt on a unit within the more global framework of the construction of the Benban solar park. The latter is installed over an area of 36 km² and includes 32 solar power plants with a cumulative production capacity of 3.8 TWh/year. When completed, it will be one of the largest solar parks in the world.
Egypt is among the few African countries that have already achieved 100% access to electricity. The country has a renewable energy capacity of 5.5GW, with a large share of hydropower (2.8GW) and the rest (2.7GW) divided between solar and wind power. Nevertheless, the government wants to install 61GW of green power plants by 2035.
2035 Sustainable energy strategy
Egypt initiated this programme years ago to further improve access to electricity throughout the country. Through this programme, the North African country hopes to increase the share of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix to 42% by 2035.
