Egypt Set to Develop $11 Billion Wind Farm, One of the World’s Biggest
- November 21, 2022
- Posted by: Quatro Strategies
- Category: Cleantech
Egypt is preparing to start construction of one of the world’s largest wind farms in 2024, worth approximately $11 billion. The project could provide electricity to Europe and Saudi Arabia. A consortium of Abu Dhabi-owned Masdar and Infinity Power Holdings is expected to finish building the 10 GW project in 2030, Infinity Power Chairman Mansour said. That capacity is roughly equal to one fifth of UK’s total renewable capacity. Mansour said during an interview at COP27 that the Egyptian government would buy the power and could export some via existing and planned cables to Europe, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Libya.
The joint venture is expected to secure land for the project this year. Currently, two locations in the country’s Western Desert are considered, both of which have wind speeds that can reach 10 meters per second.
Governments and investors are pouring money into wind and solar plants around the world as they seek to transition away from fossil fuels and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
The consortium also includes Egypt’s Hassan Allam Utilities. Infinity Power is a joint venture between Masdar, the biggest renewable-energy firm in the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt’s Infinity.
The joint venture is also looking to develop a green hydrogen facility in Egypt. It could produce 480,000 tons of the fuel per year by 2030.
While Infinity Power is able to secure funding for its projects, rising interest rates might lower the firm’s profits, said Mansour.
“We look to optimize in other areas to make up for that setback,” he said. “This will make projects more costly.”
Infinity Power is also looking to increase its presence in other African countries, including Zimbabwe, Guinea, Tunisia and South Africa. It aims to increase capacity in Africa three-fold by 2025 to 3.75 GW.
Infinity Power hopes to finalize the takeover of Amsterdam-based Lekela Power, which has about 1 GW in wind-generation capacity, in January.
“The acquisition of Lekela is very strategic for us,” said Mansour, “We were very knowledgeable in the solar-technology space, while Lekela brings us wind expertise.”
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