Egypt: 12% of electricity from wind power

By African Bulletin on January 12, 2011

“Wind power could meet 12% of the world’s electricity by 2020, creating 1.7 million jobs and reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide by more than 10 billion tons. By 2020, a total of 1.2 million Megawatts (MW) wind energy could be produced in the world, surpassing the current European electricity consumption. The current major markets are Germany, Spain, Denmark, India and some U.S. states. Other developing countries will feature prominently in the next few years. This is particularly true about 15 countries of the European Union, China, Canada, Brazil, Egypt, Poland, Turkey, the Philippines and Morocco”.

Countries in North Africa, including the Middle East have large resources of solar energy and operation thereof will be a crucial factor to help accelerate economic development in their regions. These countries have realized that tremendous opportunities exist and are beginning to diversify their energy markets, apart from hydrocarbons. With energy demand on the increase, Egypt is relying more on alternative sources of power generation to increase its electricity supply, thus, the country is aiming to produce 12% of its electricity from wind power and to launch projects for parks could provide 2,690 megawatts during the next five years, “said Energy Minister Hassan Younis . He said Monday in a statement that bids for wind farms would be launched in the year for these projects in cooperation with the European Union, Spain, Japan and German banks. These parks are located mainly in the Gulf of Suez, one of the windiest areas of the Middle East. The World Bank is estimating that 7200 Megawatts could potentially be developed by 2022 in this area. The private sector was expected to contribute to the development of wind energy by producing 1370 Megawatts. Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world with a population that has doubled in nearly 30 years – some 80 million inhabitants, is experiencing a significant economic growth rate (+6.5% expected in 2010-2011). Meanwhile and according to figures from the World Bank, the electricity demand in Egypt has increased in average of 7% per annum between 1997 and 2004 and this increase should be around 6 to 7% by 2014. Today, the population suffers from long and frequent power shortages due to an old and insufficient network grid, especially in summer. Egyptian oil production could no longer be sufficient for its domestic market, thus the country is building its first solar power plant with a capacity of 140 Megawatts, being finalised in Kuraymat area, in south of Cairo, and is also preparing to launch the construction of its first nuclear power plant, after having announced, in last August, Al-Dabaa site on the Mediterranean coast, as a definite location.