Financing is locked in for Egypt’s Ras Ghareb wind farm: The Red Sea Wind Energy (RSWE) — a JV between Orascom Construction (OC), Japan’s Toyota Tsusho Corporation/Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation, and France’s Engie — has achieved a financial close for a 500 MW wind farm near Egypt’s Ras Ghareb, according to a joint statement (pdf). The announcement comes a few months after RSWE said it will receive a c. USD 501 mn syndicated loan for the farm from several development partners.

Refresher: Established in 2020, RSWE was created for the purpose of constructing multiple wind farms in the area, according to its website. Its ownership breakdown sees Toyota and Eurus each owning 20%, Engie holding 35% and OC owning the remaining 25% stake.

So far, so good: The consortium will operate the wind farm, on which stakeholders broke ground ahead of COP27 in November. The project will connect to the grid over two phases, and is expected to commence full commercial operations in 3Q 2025 under a 25-year PPA with the Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), according to the statement. It is part of the implementation of the energy pillar in the country’s Nexus on Water, Food and Energy (NWFE) flagship program which focuses on securing climate finance to some of Egypt’s most important green projects.

The outcome: The wind farm will help slash carbon emissions by c. 1 mn tons annually and deliver clean energy to over 800k households in the country, the statement said.

Not RSWE’s first rodeo: RSWE built Egypt’s first renewable energy IPP project in Ras Ghareb with a capacity of 262.5 MW, completing it in 2019. This brings the consortium’s wind energy capacity through the two facilities to 762.5 MW.

And there’s more in the pipeline: OC, Toyota Tsusho, and Engie signed up to build another 3 GW wind farm in Egypt on the sidelines of COP, with no details disclosed on the location or timeline for the project.