The Gabal El Zeit Wind Farm is a 100 square kilometer new wind farm situated in Kilo 188, Gabal El Zeit region, south of Ras Gharib city. In terms of area, turbine count, and power output, the station is among the most extensive electricity-generating facilities in the world; there are 300 turbines.
The station has 580 projects totaling 580 MW, the first of which has 120 turbines with a capacity of 240 MW. The plant has a total capacity of 580 MW. The second project includes 110 turbines with a capacity of 220 MW, connecting 75 turbines with a capacity of 150 MW to the grid.
One hundred turbines were previously connected to the national electricity grid. The third project involves 60 under-construction turbines with a total of 120 MW. Gabal El Zeit wind farm costs about 12 billion pounds.
The station has a system for tracking migratory birds, which uses radar to shut down the turbines when the birds fly and restart them. This is a brand-new system. The Spanish firm “Gamesa” implemented the station before it merged with the German firm “Siemens.”
It has three administrative buildings, including one that houses the control center and monitors all the turbines operating simultaneously.
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Reported on September 2014
Over US$ 1bn worth of wind power plants are to be completed in Egypt within 3 years
A network of wind power farms, with 600 megawatts will be set up in Egypt in three years. This is according to Egyptian Vice President Wael Hamdy. El Sewedy Electric, which is the company planning to build the farms, will start measuring wind speeds, assessing key environments, and carrying out topographic studies in relation to the wind power plants project.
Elsewedy Electric was named in July as the winner of the state tender to set up six wind power plants in Egypt, each with about 100MW.
The Gebel El-Zeit wind energy project is expected to be part of Egypt’s government to increase renewable energy in the country. In March this year, Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy set out an agenda to add 20% of renewable energy into its national grid by 2020. This includes 12% from wind and 8% from hydraulic and solar energy.
The Gebel El-Zeit wind energy project may also increase the participation of the private sector in energy generation, since part of the government’s commitment is to have the private sector contribute 67% of the wind farms by 2020, according to the set-out plan.
The vice president has revealed that the Gebel El-Zeit wind power plants project will cost over US$ 1b.
The Gebel El-Zeit wind power plants project will be detrimental to Egypt’s plan to break away from reliance on gas-generated power. The country has also been hit by an energy crisis. The government has also announced a plan to cut subsidies programs and support renewables. The government has also recently announced plans to tender renewable power generation projects to help generate 8Gw of power in the country.
