By Mohamed Farag
(Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Environment)
The New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) plans to offer a tender to establish plants to generate solar and wind energy within weeks.
NREA Head Mohamed Salah Sobky said the authority receives dozens of offers daily from Arab and foreign companies to establish the renewable energy plants with total capacities exceeding 2,000 MW.
Rules regulating tenders will be determined according to technologies targeted by the projects, and the sought capacities that will be based on the national electricity grid’s ability to accommodate them. Regulations will be according to both the timeframe and strategy set by the Ministry of Electricity.
An official source, who requested anonymity, said that Arab and foreign companies made offers to the NREA to establish the solar and wind energy plants with investments worth $8bn. These include Gigawatt Global, Spain’s Vestas, Chinese company Suntech, the Saudi foundation Aldosary, China’s Shanghai, El-Rehab For Projects & Trade, Cypriot company Masdar, First Solar, and China’s XD-EGEMAC.
The NREA is working on expanding the establishment of solar and wind energy plants through the private sector. The plan was announced by the government after it approved the system to establish new and renewable energy products using the feed-in tariff. Contracts and agreements to buy the energy generated from the plants are being prepared to begin the projects’ implementation, according to Sobky.
Sobky added that the executive procedures have been resumed for the projects to be launched by German technology company Siemens. The projects include electricity generation from wind energy at a capacity of 2,000 MW and investments estimated at $4bn, and a turbine factory producing 300 blades annually for 100 turbines, with a capacity of 340 MW annually.
The NREA will pay for the value of these projects, Sobky said, adding that the prices offered by Siemens to establish these plants were less than those offered by other companies.
He explained that Siemens will manage the needed financing of the projects, and the NREA will pay for the value of loans and the financing. The projects will be implemented in western and eastern areas of the Nile, and the Suez Gulf on the Red Sea Coast.
