Germany’s Siemens is finalising the site with Egypt to build the first 180MW wind project out of the planned 2GW programme.

Speaking on the sidelines of the recent Egypt Energy Investment Summit, Emad Ghaly said that the German company was finalising the site and also financing for the first 180MW wind project. Ghaly said that financing for the first phase will be export credit agency (ECA) backed.

In June 2015, Siemens signed $8.5bn mega deal with the Egyptian government in 2015 to develop 16.4GW of power capacity in the country, with 2GW of this to be through a number of wind projects.

Ghaly says that the wind capacity will be developed over 10-12 sites, in the Gulf of Suez area and should be completed within the next 7-8 years.

As part of the deal, Siemens will be building a rotor blade factory to produce the major components of the wind farms. The factory, planned to be built in Ain Sohkna, will produce 600 turbines to produce the desired 2GW for the Siemens contract. The factory will provide employment for up to 1,000 people, and is scheduled to be operational in 2017.

“[As part of the] wind factory, we will train local people to produce a high-skilled workforce,” says Ghaly.