Consortium breaks ground for 500-megawatt onshore wind farm in Egypt

The project is being developed by the Orascom Construction, Toyota Tsusho/Eurus Energy Holdings and ENGIE consortium on Build-Own-Operate basis.

A consortium of Egypt’s Orascom Construction, France’s ENGIE and Japan’s Toyota Tsusho/Eurus Energy Holdings have announced a new 500-megawatt (MW) onshore wind farm project in Ras Gharib on the Gulf of Suez.

The same consortium had previously been awarded Egypt’s first-ever wind power independent power producer (IPP) scheme with a capacity of 250 MW in Ras Gharib, which was completed and operationalised in October 2019.

Orascom Construction will build the new wind farm, which will supply electricity to more than 800,000 Egyptian homes, the company said in a press statement on Tuesday.

Total investment cost of the first project amounted to approximately $400 million, according to an October 2017 Engie statement. Financing was provided by the Japanese Bank for International Corporation (JBIC) in coordination with commercial lenders SMBC and Sociéte Générale, Japanese Export Credit Agency, NEXI supplying insurance cover for the commercial lenders. The project is backed by a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC).

zawya.com