Egypt – The head of Egyptian Wealth Fund stated that the nation was ready to be an advantage to Europe and all of Africa as a producer of cheap and renewable energy in a bid to become a regional export hub.
A sub-sea cable was proposed for the possible energy supply to reach them from Cyprus to Greece for the European energy output. The country recognized the need for energy as a viable option to sell services it’s fellow African countries and the European’s via the sea.
“We are in talks with European infrastructure investors, advisers and energy traders to assess the viability and appetite,” Soliman said in an interview in Cairo. The transmission line “will position Egypt as a long-term renewable supply hub for Europe.”
Egypt is a natural-gas hub that has utilized tourism and other avenues to generate national wealth but has recently decided that being an electricity exporter is a much more lucrative way to earn for the country.
Egypt is planning to hit a target of 20% power from renewables by 2022 as it currently uses 8.6% renewables while relying on the usage of long-used gas-fired plants, hydropower and utilizes 50 gigawatts to power the North African nation plans to double by 2035 once its achieves 20%.
Egypt has been a grand site for great energy projects that have seen great results such as North Africa’s first nuclear power plant which was done in a deal with Russia for $30 billion that had produced at the capacity of 4.8 gigawatts, three power plants co-built with Siemens AG and one of the world’s biggest solar park at $4 billion and a wind farm.
The nation’s main problem is it’s rapidly growing population as it is the largest populated Arab country that had to bounce back from the 2013 struggles of the Islamist President Mohamed Mursi whose term was riddled with energy outages culminating in his military-backed ousting celebrated by the people of Egypt.
The EuroAfrica Interconnector with Cyprus and Greece had brought in Egypt for and initial agreement where the fund was to find counterparts who can invest alongside the fund and develop the transmission line.
The first phase of the Egypt- Cyprus-Greece line is estimated at 1.2 billion euros (3 billion) and should the communion go according to schedule in December 2023 that is said to produce 1000 megawatts.
