IFC could finance 500MW wind farm in Egypt by $83M

CAIRO - 7 November 2022: The International Finance Corporation (IFC) could provide $83 million to an Emirati-Japanese consortium to part-fund their planned 500 megawatt wind farm in the Egyptian Ras Ghareb.

 

The financing is pending approval and would consist of a $75 million loan and interest rate swaps worth around $8 million, according to the IFC.

 

“The Project is a greenfield 500MW wind power project, Egypt’s largest wind farm, located 9km northwest of Ras Ghareb in the wind-rich Gulf of Suez region,” it elaborated.

 

The IFC added that the Project will be an Independent Power Producer, selling its generation to the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) under a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement. 

 

Huadong PowerChina Engineering Corporation Ltd (HDEC), PowerChina International Group Limited (Power China Int’l) and HDEC Middle East Co DMCC (HDEC ME) together (Huadong PowerChina Consortium) will be the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor and Envision will be the turbine supplier. 

 

According to the IFC, the construction is expected to begin in March 2023 and operations two and a half years later.

 

Earlier in November, Egypt and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the implementation of a 10 gigawatt wind electric power project in Egypt.

 

The MoU was signed between Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, and the Saudi ACWA Power Company.

 

It stipulates the desire of the three parties to implement a project to produce electricity from wind energy with a capacity of 10 gigawatts in Egypt, provided that the necessary lands are available to conduct the necessary measurements and technical studies for the project; in preparation for the discussion of the final project contracts.

 

The Egyptian Cabinet announced late October the intention of the Saudi company "ACWA Power" to implement a huge project to generate electricity from wind energy in Egypt.

 

In June, Saudi Company ACWA Power signed a contract with Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity to invest $1.5 billion in the construction of the second largest wind power plant in the Middle East.

 

This came as a part of the signing of 14 joint investment agreements between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, worth $7.7 billion, in the fields of energy, petroleum, food industries, information technology and cybersecurity.