Arab News, Wednesday, Nov 09, 2022 | Rabi Al Thani 14, 1444
COP27: UAE and Egypt agree to build one of world’s biggest wind farms
Emirates:
The presidents of the UAE and Egypt witnessed the signing of an agreement on
Tuesday to develop one of the world’s largest onshore wind projects in Egypt,
according to an official statement on the Gulf nation’s state news agency.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between
the UAE’s renewable energy firm Masdar alongside its joint venture with Egypt’s
main renewable energy developer Infinity and Hassan Allam Utilities, the
statement on news agency WAM said.
Masdar, invested in a portfolio of renewable
energy assets with a combined value of more than $20 billion and a total
capacity of more than 15 GW, said the new project would be its biggest yet.
“With this agreement to develop our largest ever
project, Masdar is proud to bolster our contribution to Egypt’s renewable energy
goals,” Masdar’s CEO Mohamed Jameel Al-Ramahi said.
Tuesday’s agreement was signed on the sidelines of
the ongoing COP27 climate summit in Egypt’s coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh.
The UAE is hosting the COP28 conference next year.
When completed, the wind farm would be part of
Egypt’s Green Corridor initiative, a grid dedicated to renewable energy projects
that is aimed at ensuring renewable energy makes up 42 percent of the country’s
energy mix by 2035.
The wind project would save Egypt an estimated $5
billion in annual natural gas costs, the statement said. Egypt’s total installed
power capacity was around 59.5 GW in 2019/2020, the country’s renewable energy
authority said in an annual report.
“The project will enable the country to save vast
amounts of natural gas; thereby attaining economic growth, reduce carbon
emissions and provide greater access to sustainable energy sources,” Mohamed
Mansour, the chairman of Infinity Power, the Masdar and Infinity joint venture,
said in the statement.
In April, Masdar and Hassan Allam Utilities signed
two Memoranda of Understanding with Egyptian state-backed organizations to
cooperate on the development of 4 GW green hydrogen production plants in the
Suez Canal Economic Zone and on the Mediterranean coast.
In the first phase of that project, a green
hydrogen manufacturing facility will be developed and operational by 2026, able
to produce 100,000 tons of e-methanol annually for bunkering in the Suez Canal,
the statement said.
The electrolyzer facilities could be extended to
up to 4 GW by 2030 to produce 2.3 million tons of green ammonia for export as
well as supply green hydrogen for local industries, it said.