Renewable Energy in Egypt

    In 1986, Egypt's NREA was established to develop new renewable energy technologies on a commercial scale. In fact, development of renewable energy has even become a major priority over more recent years for Egyptian government. Egypt's present energy strategy is to increase the share of energy to twenty percent of this countries mix by 2020. This target could be met largely due to wind power projects. 

Current Renewable Energy Capacity 

Wind

            Egypt is known for having one of the best wind resources in the world! Egypt’s most well developed wind region would have to be the Zafarana district that has average wind speeds of nine meters a second. The NREA owns the project that consists of wind farms which started in 2001. In 2010 though, all of the wind farms capacity together totaled 550mw which makes it one of the biggest onshore wind farms in the world.

 

Solar

       Due to Egypt’s location and climate, its’s average solar radiation is between 2,000 to 3,2000kWh per square meter a year. Although, solar projects have been slow due to how high of a cost they are. Their only major solar power project is in Kuraymat and is a 140MW solar thermal combined power plant with 20MW coming from solar energy. 

Hydro

       On the positive side, hydroelectricity has been a part of electricity generation in this country for decades. The Aswan Dam produces 15,300GWh a year. This is about five or even ten percent of Egypt’s annual energy needs. Although Egypt has made some progress with this type of renewable energy, their government is more directed towards wind and solar energy sectors.

Links:

https://cleantechnica.com/2015/01/07/egypts-recent-renewable-energy-tender-oversubscribed-two-times-solar-projects/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Egypt

http://staging.unep.org/greeneconomy/AdvisoryServices/Egypt/tabid/56146/Default.aspx

http://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/knowledge/publications/74735/renewable-energy-in-egypt-hydro-solar-and-wind