The transportation ministry in Egypt announced recently its plans to use the roofs of government buildings and allied agencies to set up solar energy stations.
The country has been taking measures to expand sources of power in an effort to keep up with the escalating demand.
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) reported that the Ministry had issued a statement confirming that above –ground metro stations will be amidst the buildings to be used to generate power.
The Egyptian Company for Metro Management and Operation is partnering with the Arab Organization for Industrialization to apply two models of solar energy plants on the roof of Ghamra (30 kilowatt/hour ) and Demerdash metro stations (15 kilowatt/hour) according to the given statement. The models are nearly complete and will be linked to the national electricity grid.
In an interview with satellite channel ONtv, official representative of the Cairo Metro Company, Mr. Ahmed Abel Hady said that the Demerdash model cost about US$ 20,000 while the Ghamra model cost almost US$ 40,000.
“This is just the first step towards using all above-ground metro stations for the same principle,” Mr. Abdel Hady said.
In 2014 Egypt had announced their ambitious plan to generate renewable energy with solar and wind projects to be installed in a period of three years. In 2015 Egypt signed a deal with the German conglomerate company, Siemens to build two power plants worth US$ 1.8 bn with a 9.7 gig watts (GW) generation capacity.
The Siemens deal also included installation of about 600 wind turbines for 12 wind farms located in the Gulf of Suez.
According to Reuters, Egypt intended to meet 20 percent of its power needs from renewable sources by 2020, but has pushed that back by two years.
