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Amea to invest an additional USD 600 mn in Egypt’s renewables sector: UAE’s Amea Power will set up a USD 600 mn, 5 GW wind power project in the Gulf of Suez in cooperation with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company and the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), according to a cabinet statement released on Saturday. The project is set to be completed by the first quarter of 2026, Amea Power Chairman Hussain Al Nowais told Asharq Business.
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A busy weekend for AMEA: The announcement of the fresh investments came during the inauguration of Amea Power’s new 500 MW Abydos solar plant in Kom Ombo, which was built on an area of 10k sqm with investments of some USD 500 mn.The plant will generate electricity for 256k homes and reduce emissions by 760 tons annually.
Behind the funding: The project received funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and Power China, which was also the main contractor.
Remember: The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company will purchase the energy generated by the solar plant for 25 years as per a previously-inked offtake agreement. The firm is also working on a 500 MW wind farm in Ras Ghareb that is lined up for completion by mid-2025 as well as a 1 GW solar power plant with 600 MWh battery storage system in Benban — expected to be Africa’s largest.
DATA POINT- Amea has so far invested over USD 2 bn into the Egyptian renewables market across five projects that produce a combined 3 GW, Al Nowais said.
What’s next? The Madbouly government has put forward an urgent plan to add 4 GW of renewables to Egypt’s national grid to secure the country’s energy needs by next summer, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said. There’s also a plan to launch renewable projects with a combined capacity of 10 GW and combined investments of USD 10 bn from 2023-2028 under the government’s Nexus for Food, Water, and Energy initiative (NWFE), Planning and International Development Minister Rania Al Mashat said during the inauguration ceremony.
Part of a wider plan: This push is part of a broader plan to secure the country’s energy needs amid declining natural gas production and expanding electricity interconnection projects to enable exports to surrounding countries. Egypt plans to source 42% of its energy from renewables by 2030.
IN OTHER EGYPT SUSTAINABILITY UPDATES-
Upper Egypt gets a LE 250 mn new waste recycling facility: Construction of an EGP 250 mn mechanical-biological waste treatment (MBT) plant in Assiut has commenced, the government said in a statement last week. The plant is scheduled to be operational within 18 months.
What we know: The facility will deploy advanced German-Dutch technology and will feature two lines for processing and recycling solid waste with a capacity of 60 tons per hour. The project — part of the National Solid Waste Management Program (NSWMP) — aims to produce high-quality organic fertilizer and refuse-derived fuel to be used as a clean fuel alternative in energy-intensive industries.
What is NSWMP? NSWMP is a comprehensive government program founded in 2012 that aims to restructure the country’s waste management system. It focuses on the four governorates of Qena, Assiut, Kafr al-Shiekh, and Gharbia. It is 30% funded by national entities, while the remaining 70% comes from foreign financing institutions, including the EU, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and Germany’s GIZ and KfW, according to the website.
Egypt is boosting its waste management: The UAE’s Tadweer and Egypt’s Waste Management Regulatory Authority signed an MoU on waste management and recycling in Egypt last month to explore a possible EUR 70 mn palm frond waste recycling factory in the New Valley Governorate. Cemex is also expanding its waste-to-energy facilities across the country, inking two management and operations agreements for facilities in Minya and Assiut in the last few months. The cement company is also managing a facility in Gharbia that came online in May.
