Egypt: More than $1 Billion Investment in New Energy

Egypt, which suffers from severe energy shortages, has reaffirmed its commitment to increase the share of renewable energy in the North African country’s energy mix to 42% by 2040. In this context, the Cairo government said it has signed a number of agreements to build renewable energy projects with a total capacity of 2150 megawatts (MW), of which 1100 MW will be equipped with advanced battery storage systems.

According to a press release issued by the Egyptian government, a “key agreement” was signed between the Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Development and Utilization Authority (NEDA), the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), and the United Arab Emirates’ financial company Al Nowais Investment Group. The project involves the construction of a 1000-megawatt solar power plant with a state-of-the-art battery energy storage system in the Abydos 2 Special Economic Zone, near Assuan (southern part of the country).

Another agreement involves a 300MW upgrade of the existing 500MW-capacity Kom Ombo photovoltaic panel plant, also in Assuan. Total investment in the implementation of these ambitious projects will exceed one billion dollars.

As the Egyptian government emphasized, “once completed, the Abydos 2 photovoltaic plant will be the largest of its kind in all of Africa, capable of supplying 769,800 families with clean electricity.” In addition, the implementation of the project will create about 2500 new jobs. “This project will make a significant contribution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by eliminating the emission of more than 2.3 million tons of CO₂ per year,” the press release said.

Finally, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have concluded two usufruct agreements for the construction of solar and wind farms needed to supply electricity for the production of green hydrogen and its conversion into green ammonia. The expected production capacity will be about 74 thousand tons of ammonia per year, which will be fully exported abroad. This project involves foreign direct investment (FDI) of about 500 million dollars and involves NEDA, on the one hand, and a European consortium consisting of Scatec, Vertiglobe, and Orascom Construction Company, on the other.