Egypt enters land agreement with Scatec for big wind power project

Land for 5GW wind power plant agreed upon with Norwegian developer, for plant to be established in West Sohag region; NREA-owned land will see one of first wind projects in southern Egypt
The Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy, represented by the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), and the Norwegian company Scatec, signed an agreement to allocate land for construction of a wind power plant with production capacity of 5 GW, in West Sohag, at an investment cost of $5 billion.
According to the agreement, the wind power plant to be built in West Sohag will produce 5 GW of electricity annually.
The agreement, announced by official statement this month, was signed by Dr. Mohamed El-Khayyat, CEO of the New and Renewable Energy Authority, and Terje Pilskog, CEO of the Norwegian company Scatec.
It was signed in the presence of Dr. Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, and Ambassador Hilde Klemetsdal, Ambassador of Norway to Egypt.
The project contributes to Egypt's goal of renewable energy making up 42% of the country's energy mix by 2030.
Attracting FDI
“This project confirms the ability of renewable energy in Egypt to attract foreign direct investment,” said Dr. Mohamed Shaker.
Shaker referred to the comparative advantages of Egypt with regard to providing the lands necessary to produce a huge volume of electricity from renewable energies, as well as Egypt's geographical location, which enables it to export green energy to Europe.
“The plant, to be established in the West Sohag region, will be one of the largest wind stations in Egypt and Africa, and will contribute to achieving the Egyptian government's goals of doubling the percentage of renewable energies in the energy mix,” said Terje Belskog, CEO of Scatec.
He explained that the project will provide about 8,000 job opportunities during the construction period, while providing about 300 permanent job opportunities, and that this comes after the success of Scatec’s implementation of 6 solar energy stations within the Benban solar energy project, which is the largest foreign direct investment project in solar energy in Egypt.
The first project in southern Egypt
“The agreement to provide a plot of land allocated for the construction of a wind power plant project in West Sohag comes within the framework of the state's plan to expand in the field of renewable energy, as the land subject to the agreement is owned by NREA and within the map of its future projects,” says Engineer Mohamed Salim Salman, a Cairo-based expert in new and renewable energy projects.
“What is new in the matter is that this project will be one of the first wind projects to be implemented in southern Egypt, after it was usual that wind energy projects were implemented in locations on Red Sea coast".
Salman says that the project is in the interest of clean electric energy production projects, especially in light of the increasing demand for energy exports from Egypt to Europe, especially clean energy.
"The project also serves the expansion of green hydrogen production, which relies on clean renewable energy sources,” he adds.
Energy & Utilities reported on wind power progress at the COP 27 conference in Egypt last year.
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