ENGIE Africa has commissioned the 262.5 MW Ras Ghareb wind farm in Egypt. The wind farm is now fully connected to the grid and is ready for commercial operation at maximum capacity.
The project company, Ras Ghareb Wind Energy SAE is owned by ENGIE (40%) and its consortium partners Toyota Tsusho Corporation/Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation (40%) and Orascom Construction (20%). The wind farm is located near Ras Ghareb on the Gulf of SUEZ, an optimal site with about 60% of gross capacity factor. The energy is sold under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC). The total investment cost of the project is approximately US$380 million.
Ras Ghareb Wind Energy is the first wind farm tendered on a Build-Own-Operate (BOO) scheme and is part of the Egyptian government’s drive to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix with a target wind generation capacity of 7 GW by 2022.
The consortium arranged non-recourse project financing from The Japan Bank for International Corporation (JBIC) in coordination with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Société Générale under a Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) cover. Commercial International Bank (CIB) Egypt is acting as working capital bank and Attijariwafa Bank provided an equity bridge loan for Orascom Construction.
