Egypt’s renewables drive shifts focus

Green hydrogen and distributed solar grab investor attention as country prepares for Cop27 climate talks in November

Saudi Arabian power company Acwa Power has agreed to develop the Middle East’s largest windfarm at Egypt’s Gabal el-Zayt wind power hub on the Gulf of Suez under a contract signed in June during a visit by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. However, new government-procured utility-scale projects of this type have become a rarity as the country now has more capacity than the transmission system can handle or grid-connected consumers require. Egypt is a regional leader in non-hydro renewables, with some 3.4GW onstream by the end of 2021. The focus of investor attention has switched to alternative downstream deployment of the largely desert nation’s vast solar and wind potential—chiefly in terms