Thinking clean A 120 MEGAWATT (MW) wind farm is under construction and is expected to start operation in 2013, Hassan Younis, Egypt's minister of electricity and energy, said this week. Another, with a capacity of 250 MW, will be constructed through the build, operate, own (BOO) system and will start operation in 2014. "The farms are part of the ministry's strategy to make renewable energies account for 20 per cent of total energy production by the year 2020," Younis said during the 10th World Wind Energy Conference and Renewable Energy Exhibition which ended yesterday, Ahmed Kotb attended. "Egypt has half the total number of wind farms in the Middle East and Africa. Renewable energy production is becoming a priority amid soaring prices of other energy sources," Mahmoud Eissa, Egypt's minister of industry and foreign trade, stated, adding that it has become very important to expand renewable energy projects and to export clean energy to the European Union. Moreover, an agreement was signed on Tuesday between the Egyptian government and the European Union to finance a wind farm project in Al-Zayat Mountain area with 60 million euros. The three-day conference brought together over 600 renewable energies experts from different countries who discussed about 150 worksheets related to the field. An exhibition of the latest technological advances in renewable energies was also held. Getting closer TURKISH businesswomen met with local business representatives and government officials, reports Samia Fakhry. This week, 65 Turkish businesswomen visited Egypt to meet with business partners and government officials. The visit included several one-on-one meetings, and business-to-business exchanges on numerous areas including energy, construction, mining, tourism, food, animal husbandry, cosmetics and machinery. The delegation was headed by Zuhal Mansfield, president of the Egyptian Economic Relations Council in Turkey. Mansfield called for facilitating visa procedures between the two countries, as well as applying tariff reductions. "The Turkish and Egyptian nations have very close relations that date back to the days of the Ottoman Empire, 400 years ago," Mansfield noted. Turkish and Egyptian trade volume reached $3.4 billion at the end of last year, a figure that Mansfield said is aimed to reach $10 billion in the next five years. While Turkish businesses have invested an approximate total of $1.5 billion in Egypt in the last five years, Mansfield expects the figure to triple by 2015. In addition to five Turkish MPs, the delegation also included Turkish Minister of Family and Social Politics Fatima Sahin.
