Saudi firm agrees deal for 10GW wind farm in Egypt

Acwa Power

• Acwa Power teams with Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority
• Wind project expected to provide electricity to 11m households
• Plant to save Egyptian economy $6.5bn in annual natural gas costs

Acwa Power, a Saudi-listed company and the world’s largest private water desalination company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority to allocate land for a 10 gigawatt wind project.

The agreement allocates approximately 3,000 sq km of land west of Sohag, an urban centre on the Nile, for the project. 

The wind project is expected to generate around 50,000 GW-hours of clean energy annually, providing electricity to 11 million households and mitigating the impact of 25.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

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The project will be part of Egypt’s plan to increase renewable energy capacity to 42 percent by 2030.

The plant is expected to provide the Egyptian economy with $6.5 billion savings in annual natural gas costs, in addition to creating up to 120,000 jobs.

Dr Mohamed Shaker Al-Marqabi, minister of electricity and renewable energy, said Egypt has adopted an “ambitious programme” to advance investment in renewables. 

“We foresee that the positive contributions with financing institutions and development partners, as well as the comparative advantages of Egypt in terms of the availability of land, will show that Egypt has what it takes to produce renewable energy for domestic consumption and export,” he said.

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Marco Arcelli, CEO, Acwa Power, said: “Today’s signing furthers our commitment to driving sustainable development and powering Egypt’s future with clean, reliable, and renewable energy.

“We are determined to harness the vast potential of wind power, creating jobs, reducing emissions, and ensuring a greener and brighter future for Egypt.”

Acwa Power has three other facilities in Egypt, that are either in operation, under construction or in advanced development, including a 120 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic panels project in Benban, a 200MW solar panels facility in Kom Ombo and the 1.1GW Suez Wind Energy project. 

Last month a consortium led by Masdar signed an agreement to secure land in Egypt to build a $10 billion 10GW capacity wind farm.

Infinity Power, a joint venture between the UAE’s Masdar and Egyptian renewables business Infinity, and developer and investor Hassan Allam Utilities, did the deal with Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority.

In March Masdar became Africa’s largest operator of renewables after Infinity Power acquired Lekela Power, a renewables developer with operations across the African continent. 

The Abu Dhabi firm signed deals to develop renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of up to 5GW in Angola, Uganda and Zambia in January.