The New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) revealed that 5,200 square kilometer (sqkm) were allocated to establish renewable energy projects, either by public or private sector companies. The lands allocated for the projects are sufficient to produce 60,000 megawatts. The NREA seeks to utilize the allocated lands before launching new projects. The timeframe for these projects is 8 to 10 years, within the framework of the government's plan to expand clean energy projects. The projects targeted to be implemented in East and West Nile, Aswan and Zaafarana provide more than two million direct and indirect job opportunities, and contribute to increasing clean energy to more than 70% of the total electricity produced on the electrical network. The lands allocated to NREA are in the areas of Zafarana, Gulf of Suez, East Nile, West Nile, Aswan and Benban. The area of land allocated to projects in Zafarana is about 6.5 sqkm, including eight plots of land for projects in operation, and a piece of land for a project under construction. A remaining piece of land is available for the implementation of any project. As for the Gulf of Suez, the area of land allocated for renewable energy projects is about 80 sq km, including eight plots of land for projects under development, five plots of land for projects in operation, and a plot of land available to implement various projects. All lands are available for the implementation of renewable energy projects in the east and west of the Nile. The area of available lands in the east of the Nile is 1923 sq km, while the lands in the west of the Nile are about 1,626 sqkm. NREA revealed that there are 7 plots of land available to implement projects in Aswan, 3 plots of land for projects under development, and a plot of land for a project in operation. With regard to the lands of Benban Solar Complex, there are 32 plots of land for projects currently in operation "feed-in tariff", and seven lands available for the implementation of solar energy projects, either through NREA, or in cooperation with the private sector. The capacities of renewable energy projects under development witnessed a remarkable increase in the third quarter of this year, reaching 3,570 megawatts, with foreign direct investments amounting to $3.5bn, which is double its counterpart in the same period of 2020. The productivity of hydroelectric power during the third quarter of the fiscal year 2021-2022 reached about 2,654 GW/h, while wind power projects recorded 1133 GW/h. The energy produced from solar cells connected to the grid amounted to about 949 GW/h, in addition to about 22 gigawatt hours generated from biofuel projects.
