Egypt Okays AMEA Power’s New RE Plans

The Egyptian Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Dr Mostafa Madbouly, has approved the offer submitted by the UAE-based AMEA Power, one of the companies of the Al Nowais Investment Group, to implement additional renewable energy (RE) projects before the summer of 2025.

The government said that the projects include adding 500 MW of solar energy capacity, after the completion of the “Abydos” solar energy project currently being implemented with a capacity of 500 MW.

These projects also include adding 1.5 GW of renewable energy – solar as well as wind – and connecting it to the national electricity grid, after the completion of the new solar energy project with a capacity of 1 GW, and the implementation of the “Amunet” wind energy project, which is located in Ras Ghareb in Red Sea Governorate, with a capacity of 500 MW, in addition to the battery storage system.

Once completed, the “Amunet” wind power plant is expected to be able to produce 2.3 TWh/year of electricity, enough to power about 800,000 Egyptian households and offset about 1 MtCO2/year. For the project, AMEA Power has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC).

Total Planned Capacity

The total planned capacity to be added from AMEA Power projects before the summer of 2025 reaches 2 GW, including the battery storage system.

Dr Madbouly also confirmed that Egypt will stop reducing electricity loads during the summer season starting from Sunday, after the arrival of a number of gas shipments that the country has contracted for.

Madbouly said that the Cabinet discussed a number of issues such as power crisis and the government plans to address energy demands in the summer of 2025 using renewable energy. “We are importing large quantities of fuel shipments to implement the plan to stop load shedding,” he added.

Power Crisis Abates

Earlier, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) said that Egypt has received five of the 21 shipments of liquefied natural gas contracted to meet the fuel needs of power stations during the load shedding period in the third week of July. “The quantities of the five shipments amount to about 155,000 cu m of liquefied natural gas,” EGAS said.

Egypt is facing a major crisis related to the Egyptian government reducing loads and resorting to cutting off electricity, but the crisis has worsened with the rise in temperatures and the shortage of gas supplied to the stations, which prompted the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company to announce a load reduction schedule in coordination with local authorities so that citizens can know the timing of power outages.