Egypt launches giant power station with Norwegian company in Nag Hammadi

CAIRO - 5 March 2024: The governorates of Upper Egypt are witnessing a large investment demand, especially in new and renewable energy projects and in particular solar energy station projects.

 

This comes in light of the great success of the solar energy station in Benban in Aswan Governorate, which is one of the most important stations in the world.

 

As part of the state’s move towards increasing investments in this field, the Ministry of Public Business Sector, in cooperation with the Norwegian company SCATEC, has begun procedures for inaugurating one of the solar stations in the “Al-Hew” [Translating to "The Empty"] desert area, which is named after it, as it is an empty desert area and close to the aluminum factories in Nag Hammadi.

 

President of the General Syndicate for Engineering, Metallurgical and Electrical Industries, Engineer Khaled Al-Feki, stated that the state’s move towards investing in this industry "is a major shift for the economy in two ways: the first is increasing its growth rates and the resulting job opportunities, and the second is reducing carbon pollutants and using clean energy."

 

He elaborated saying that this adds an advantage to the products in light of the world’s desire to import products manufactured from clean energy to reduce carbon consumption.

 

Al-Fiqi added that the advantages of inaugurating the station in that desert area will be related to the establishment of a new urban community close to it and represents a direct support for the aluminum factories and the possibility of expanding them and completing the modernization process.

 

He pointed out that modernizing the existing factory increases productivity significantly, and thus increases exports, especially since the company’s capabilities qualify it to increase exports to 500 million dollars.

 

He further said that Egypt Aluminum factories’ exports amounted to about 10 billion pounds for a sales volume of 130 thousand tons.

 

Engineer Khaled Al-Feki praised the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Misr Aluminum Company and the Norwegian company “Scatec ASA” to establish a solar energy station with a capacity of 1 gigawatt to produce electricity for the Nag Hammadi industrial complex. "This reduces the cost of electricity to the company so that it gets its needs from it and the rest is pumped into the national grid," he added.