Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly witnessed on Wednesday the signing of a deal to allocate land for a 3-gigawatt wind farm project in West Sohag. The deal was signed by the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy, represented by the New and Renewable Energy Authority, and an alliance of companies including Orascom Construction PLC, French ENGIE, and Japanese Toyota Tsusho. The deal is the second step in developing the project, which was initiated by a memorandum of understanding signed by the alliance, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, and the New and Renewable Energy Authority during the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh in November 2022. The project aims to build, own, and operate a wind farm on an area of about 852 km2 of land in West Sohag, which will provide clean and sustainable energy to about two million Egyptian homes. Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohamed Shaker said that the project will also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 6.5 million tonnes annually and create 7,000 job opportunities, including 2,000 direct jobs during construction, 5,000 indirect jobs, and 1,000 permanent jobs after operation. He added that the project is part of the Egyptian government's vision to increase the share of renewable energy sources to 42% by 2035. Khaled El Degwy, Concessions Director at Orascom Construction, said that the project builds on the success of the alliance in the renewable energy sector in Egypt. He said that the alliance has developed wind farms in Egypt with a total capacity of 762.5 megawatts, including a 262.5-megawatt wind farm in Ras Gharib, which was the first independent renewable energy producer project in Egypt, and a 500-megawatt wind farm in Gabal El-Zeit, which started construction in October 2022.
