Egypt signs $5bn deal with Norwegian utility for development of wind farm

Project expected to produce five gigawatts annually and create 8,000 jobs

Zafarana wind farm in Egypt. The country aims to generate 42 per cent of its energy needs through renewables by 2030. Victoria Hazou for the National

Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy has signed a $5 billion deal with Norwegian utility Scatec to develop a five-gigawatt wind farm in the country's south.

The country's cabinet confirmed that a tract of land in Sohag province had been set aside for the project.

The deal was signed on Wednesday at a ceremony attended by Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker and Norway’s ambassador in Cairo Hilde Klemetsdal.

The wind farm will also create 8,000 jobs for the province's residents, among the country’s poorest.

The farm will be one of many renewable projects launched over the past decade as Egypt aims to generate 42 per cent of its energy needs through renewables by 2030, the cabinet said.

Scatec has been operating in Egypt since 2017 after it signed a 25-year power-purchase agreement to export 380 megawatts generated by six Egyptian plants to Europe each year.

The company also signed an agreement with Egypt in May to build the North African country’s first green methanol production plant in the Nile delta province of Damietta.

The deal is expected to drum up a total of $450 million in foreign investment.

In 2022, Scatec also signed a $6 billion agreement with the Egyptian government to produce green hydrogen at a plant in the Red Sea city of Ain Sokhna.

Generating foreign investment in the electricity sector is a priority for the Egyptian government, the cabinet.

The Arab world's most populous nation is also endeavouring to become a bigger exporter of electricity to Europe through an undersea cable that will connect Egypt to Attica in Greece.

Expected to be completed in seven years, the undersea cable will transmit 3,000 megawatts from Egypt to Europe's power grid annually.

Scatec also owns and operates Benban solar park in Egypt's Aswan province, one of the world's biggest solar parks with a total capacity of 1.8 gigawatts.