Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, on Wednesday witnessed the signing of a deal to allocate land for a 3-gigawatt wind farm in West Sohag. The agreement was signed by an alliance of companies, including Orascom Construction PLC, French ENGIE, and Japanese Toyota Tsusho. As well as the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy, represented by the New and Renewable Energy Authority.
The agreement is the second step in the project’s development. The first was the signing of a memorandum of understanding by the alliance, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, and the New and Renewable Energy Authority in Sharm El-Sheikh in November 2022, which served as the project’s catalyst.
Furthermore, the goal of the project is to construct, develop, and run a wind farm in West Sohag. That will supply around two million Egyptian homes with clean, sustainable electricity over an area of land that is roughly 852 km2.
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Capacity of the proposed 3-gigawatt wind farm in West Sohag
The project will also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 6.5 million tonnes annually and generate 7,000 job opportunities, including 2,000 direct jobs during construction, 5,000 indirect jobs, and 1,000 permanent jobs after operation, according to Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker. The initiative, he continued, is a component of the Egyptian government’s plan. To double the proportion of renewable energy sources by the year 2035, to 42%.
According to Khaled El Degwy, Director of Concessions at Orascom Construction, the project builds on the success of the collaboration in Egypt’s renewable energy industry. Additionally, a 500 megawatt wind farm in Gabal El-Zeit, whose construction began in October 2022, and a 262.5 megawatt wind farm in Ras Gharib, which was the country’s first independently produced renewable energy project, were among the wind farms the alliance has developed in Egypt with a combined capacity of 762.5 megawatts, according to him.
