Gamesa awarded Egypt wind farms

03 March 2015

Spanish company to execute 220MW project

  • Egypt awards 220MW wind farm to Spanish firm Gamesa
  • The project is funded by a $324m soft loan from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency
  • The design, build, operate project is due to be completed at the end of 2017

Egypt’s New & Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) signed a €220m ($246m) contract with Spain’s Gamesa to design, build and operate (DBO) for three years a 220MW wind farm at Gabal el-Zeit, on 19 February 2015.

The renewable energy project, located on the western side of the Gulf of Suez, is scheduled for completion in late 2017.

The scheme is being funded by a ¥38.8bn ($324m) soft loan from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Originally agreed in 2010, it has a repayment period of 40 years, including a 10-year grace period with a 0.3 per cent interest rate.

Gamesa was also awarded a 120MW capacity wind farm at Gabal el-Zeit on a DBO basis, funded by Spain. Execution is expected to start in late 2015 and take 20 months.

The firm additionally signed a contract in 2011 to supply 100 turbines to the first 200MW phase of the Gabal el-Zeit project, funded by Germany’s kfW Development Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the EU through the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF). The project is being commissioned, with 80 wind turbines already producing 160MW. Commissioning should be complete by May 2015.

Bids for a build, own, operate (BOO) contract for a 250MW wind farm on the Gulf of Suez are due in March 2015.

Four more 200MW wind farms in the Gulf of Suez area are in the pre-tendering phase. Plots of land have been set aside for this purpose and for smaller feed-in tariff projects.

The feed-in tariff scheme aims to award 2000MW of wind capacity to private developers over the next two years. Twenty-seven consortiums have prequalified to set up projects between 20MW and 100MW. NREA is considering reopening prequalification for feed-in tariff wind projects.

Egypt intends to reach 20 per cent of energy generated renewably by 2022, including 7,200MW of wind projects. Currently, Egypt has a wind capacity of around 750MW, with another 1,340MW in the pipeline.

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