Lekela Power, a renewable power generation company delivering utility-scale projects across Africa, announced today the initialling of key project documents including a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC). The initialling of these documents is a major milestone in Lekela’s development of a 250MW wind farm in the Gulf of Suez.
The project forms part of the Egyptian Government’s Build, Own, Operate ‘BOO’ framework, and is situated approximately 30km north-west of Ras Ghareb. The location benefits from a strong wind resource which will deliver high capacity factors and allow the wind farm to sell competitively priced power to its customer, EETC.
Demand for electricity in Egypt is growing at 6% annually and is predicted to continue to grow at this rate for the next decade. Currently, 86% of Egyptian power generation is from gas-operated power plants and there is therefore an incentive for Egypt to draw on its diverse natural resources and move towards more renewable power generation.
Extensive environmental and technical studies have already been carried out on the site, generating positive results. The next stage of the project, financial closure followed by the commencement of construction, is expected to take place in 2018.
Dr. Sherif Elkholy, Partner at Actis (60% owner of Lekela), said, “initialling the PPA marks an important step for Lekela Power and its partners. This is part of our long-term strategic plan to deliver renewable energy to Egypt and support the diversification of its generation capacity at a highly competitive price.”
Chris Antonopoulos, Lekela Power CEO, said, “our progress in Egypt mirrors our development efforts across the African market. Generating clean, renewable, and competitively priced power continues to be a priority in many countries across the continent and we are looking forward to further announcements in South Africa, Ghana, and Senegal in due course.”
Photo credit: https://www.ecolife.zone/
