Consortium agrees to develop largest renewable project in Egypt

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ENGIE, Toyota Tsusho Corporation/Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation and Orascom Construction have jointly signed an agreement to commence development work on a new 500 MW wind farm in Ras Ghareb, Egypt.

The partners have agreed to develop the wind farm on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis and are targeting to complete all necessary pre-construction work, including financial close, by Q3/4 2019.

The agreement was signed between the consortium of developers and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) as the power purchaser and the New & Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) as the land owner.

The consortium are already developing a 250 MW wind farm in the same area of Egypt, located on the African side of the Gulf of Suez, having signed a PPA with EETC in November last year and achieved financial close in December. The wind farm is currently under construction ahead of schedule and is expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2019.

The developers have claimed that this new 500 MW project eclipses their 250 MW wind farm as the largest renewable energy project of its type and size in Egypt.

In March 2017, Elsewedy Electric and Marubeni Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop a 500 MW wind project in the Gulf of Suez region. In February 2018, Elsewedy disclosed that it was still in negotiations with the NREA regarding the project's approval, meaning that the Engie-Toyota-Orascom project may commence construction and deliver the largest renewable facility sooner.

Both projects will be crucial to meeting the Government of Egypt's target 7 GW wind generation capacity by 2022.