A move by the Ministry of Tourism encouraging hotels to raise dependency on renewable energy has raised scepticism as the country faces frequent power-cuts triggered by fuel shortages. “The initiative to provide renewable energy in hotels in Egypt is nothing but a way of promoting tourism, rather than seriously investing in the field itself," said Mohamed El-Sobky, head of the Energy Research Center. El-Sobky said investments in Egypt's renewable energy sector are “questionable". He added that although the sector has recently received government incentives such as investment tax exemptions, little has been done so far. The ministry signed a protocol last Saturday in cooperation with SEDA Egypt and the Egyptian Hotel Association to transform the country's tourist-geared hotels and resorts, especially in Sinai and along the Red Sea, to rely on eco-friendly sources of energy. Medium and long-term projects will include solar energy applications for hotels as well as replacing natural gas for both touristic vehicles and hotels. “There is also vague legislation when it comes to this specific sector in Egypt," Sobky said, “especially investments in this field, which is why we have no real estimates of the investments of such projects." Last January, Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou announced three projects planned in the field for 2013. One of these projects aims to modify tourist buses to use natural gas instead of diesel, once natural gas stations are built, while another aims is to implement intelligent lighting, which detects the presence of people and turns the lights on or off in corridors and hallways automatically, in order to save energy. The third project, meanwhile, is built around a long-term target of switching 100,000 hotel rooms from conventional heating to solar water heating in the next five years. Egypt has been plagued by increasingly frequent power cuts since the 2011 revolt, triggered by fuel shortages and peaking demands accompanying high summer temperatures. According to a report by the World Bank, the rate of growth of electricity demand in Egypt has exceeded 6.5% per year over the past 10 years and is expected to remain in the 6-7% range over the next 10 years. “Of a total demand of 83 terawatt hours (TWh) on the interconnected electricity generating system in Egypt, 78% was met by thermal plants, of which 90% operate on natural gas and 10% on heavy oil," the report states. Only 19% of the total demand was met by large hydro (principally the High Dam) and electricity from independent power producers, with 3% of this amount coming from wind, the report said. Amr Farouk, managing partner at Oasis Renewable Energy, stated that the need for green transformation in the Egyptian tourism sector is “vital if the sector [is] to grow and remain". He further explained that “solar water heating applications and intelligent lighting are short term projects that will [soon facilitate] the sector's transformation".
