Egypt has signed a $1.5 billion deal with a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power for a 1.1 gigawatts (GW) wind energy project in the Gulf of Suez and Jabal El Zayt, the Egyptian Cabinet said in a statement on Wednesday.
Wind energy
Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Development and Utilization Authority and the consortium including the Egyptian Hassan Allam Holding signed the agreement in the presence of the Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly.
Under the agreement, the consortium will work during the development phase to complete site studies and secure project finance for the wind farm to be located in the Gulf of Suez and Gebel El Zeit areas.
It will be the largest wind power generation project in the Middle East region and one of the largest onshore wind power projects globally. The project will utilize state-of-the-art wind turbine technology with a turbine tip height of around 220 meters, the tallest in the Gulf of Suez area, thereby optimizing land use efficiency.
Once operational, the project will offset 2.4 million tons of carbon dioxide annually and provide power to approximately 1,080,000 households.
In July, ACWA Power signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) to allocate land for a 10 GW wind project in the country.
The company also signed a framework agreement in December for developing the first phase of the green hydrogen project in Egypt with a capacity of 600,000 tonnes annually of green ammonia, with an investment of $4 billion, to scale up to a second phase with a potential capacity of 2 million tonnes-per-year.
Renewable energy targets
Egypt is committed to enhancing its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs) by quadrupling its installed renewables capacity share to 42% by 2030.
The North African country also adopts a 2050 long-term strategy to explore a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target and kick-start the development of green hydrogen, considering the expansion of the use of zero-emission vehicles, and sustainable public transport for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport.
