Is another major electricity export project with Europe afoot?
Egypt and Greece are working on a plan to add 9.5 GW of renewable power generation capacity in Egypt for export to Greece, according to a statement from Ittihadiya, the office of the Egyptian president, on Thursday. The electricity would be generated by wind and solar plants and would be linked to Greece via subsea cables, the statement said. This came following a meeting between President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and the CEO of Greek infrastructure investor Copelouzos Group last week.
^^ We have more on the story in yesterday’s EnterpriseAM.
Add that to the list of grid connection projects between Egypt and Europe: Egypt has been looking into forging closer electricity relations with Greece and Cyprus, including the USD 4 bn, 2 GW EuroAfrica Interconnector, and the 3 GW Greece-Egypt Interconnector (GREGY), which counts Copelouzos as among its key players.
Egypt, meanwhile, is looking to offer more solar projects to the private sector: This wasn’t the only major renewable energy story to come out of Egypt over the weekend, as the local press reported that Egypt’s Electricity Ministry plans to tender six solar projects with a combined capacity of 300 MW in Aswan Governorate to local and international private sector firms in 4Q 2022. Total investments are estimated to be upwards of EGP 5 bn.
MENA is increasingly being seen as an energy lifeline for Europe… Europe has increasingly been looking to wean itself off of Russian fossil fuels after imposing sanctions on Moscow in response to its invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. Supply shortages have caused natural gas and electricity prices on the continent to surge to record highs this year, pushing the EU to strengthen ties with other energy suppliers such as Egypt. The EU has this year signed a gas import agreement with Egypt and Israel and is looking to accelerate interconnector projects such as GREGY.
…Particularly the renewable variety: The MENA region has already been an exporter of renewable energy to Europe for some time now. Morocco has been exporting electricity generated from solar and wind energy to Spain and Portugal through two electricity interconnection projects with a combined generation capacity of 1.4 GW. The country, which is looking to become a global leader in electricity exports, is working on a 10.5 GW solar, wind, and storage complex that could see it export around 3.6 GW of electricity to the UK by 2030.