Siemens Gamesa has secured a contract to construct a 262MW wind turbine in Egypt's Gulf of Suez in the company largest deal in the country to date, the company said on Wednesday. The deal is part of an agreement signed between Siemens and the Egyptian government to supply gas and wind power plants to boost the country's electricity generation by 50 percent. Under the new agreement, the Spain-based company will install 125 of its G97-2.1 MW machines in the wind farm in Ras Ghareb, the company said in a statement on its website. Construction of the facility is scheduled to be complete in mid-2019, with operations expected by the end of that year. The wind project is being developed by a consortium of French energy multinational Engie, Japan's Toyota Tsusho Corporation and Eurus Energy, and Egyptian local engineering group Orascom. The deal will also see Siemens Gamesa provide maintenance services for the facility for 15 years. Siemens Gamesa said the project is the first privately-backed wind project in Egypt, where all wind facilities had previously been backed by the state-run Renewable Energy Authority (NREA). In 2015, Siemens signed an 8 billion euro deal with Egypt to build power plants and wind power installations that would add 16.4 gigawatts (GW) to Egypt's national grid. The Egyptian government aims to meet 20 percent of its annual electricity demand from renewable sources by 2022 , part of the country's push to boost wind power capacity to 6,500 MW by 2026.
