Farah Tawfeek November 29, 2017
In a historic feat in the clean energy and sustainability fields, Egypt’s rank jumped 23 places in Bloomberg’s Climatescope 2017 annual report, becoming number 19 out of 71 countries assessed for the progress they made towards clean energy.
This makes Egypt the second fastest country to progress in the clean energy sector since last year.
Egypt and Jordan are the only Middle Eastern countries to make it to this year’s top 20 list.
“[Egypt’s] significant progress was largely due to the surge in clean energy investment to some USD 745 in 2016 from almost nothing in the preceding year,” the report declared.
“Egypt has also improved its policies and enabling environment for renewable energy in the last year,” the report went on to state.
Egypt has boosted its development in renewable energy in the past years.
The construction of a solar park has been announced, which is expected to be the largest in the world having drawn pledges of over USD 1.8 billion from international financial institutions.
In October, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), signed a power purchase agreement with Toyota, Orascom and GD France to co-develop a wind power station on the Suez Gulf.
Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) has also received purchase bids from Vestas, Siemens, Enercon, and Ray Power for another 250 MW wind power station in the Gulf of Suez.
Egypt joins top 20 countries in clean energy transition rating: Bloomberg
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EBRD to finance 16 new solar power plants in Upper Egypt’s Benban November 30, 2017
Under the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) $500 million framework for renewable energy in Egypt, the EBRD is financing 16 new solar power plants with a capacity of 750 megawatts, making it the single largest investor in renewable energy in the country.
Expected to reduce Egypt’s carbon dioxide emissions by 90,000 tonnes per year, the plants are expected to be the largest solar site in Africa, and will be located at a solar site in Benban in Upper Egypt, with a capacity of 1.8 gigawatts, the EBRD statement said.
Aiming to encourage private investments in wind and solar around Egypt, the EBRD agreed on the state’s feed-in tariff program in June, worth a $500 million, to finance renewable energy projects in Egypt.
“This is a major milestone in our support for renewable energy in Egypt. We have been working with the Egyptian authorities since 2014 to help them fulfill their ambitious goals in this area,” said Harry Boyd-Carpenter, head of Power and Energy at the EBRD.
The EBRD has invested until now more than €3.7 billion directly in renewable energy, supporting 111 projects in 23 countries and funding more than 5.7 GW of capacity, the statement said.
Earlier this week, a report by Bloomberg Climatescope said that Egypt ranked second among countries making progress throughout the year in the transition to renewable energy.
According to the report, Egypt climbed 23 places, and ranked 19 out of the 71 evaluated countries in emerging clean energy markets. Jordan topped the list.
EBRD to finance 16 new solar power plants in Upper Egypt’s Benban