ACWA Power, a Saudi-listed company and the world’s largest private water desalination company, the first mover into green hydrogen, and a leader in energy transition, today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) to allocate land for a 10 GW wind project in Egypt.
The agreement was signed at the headquarters of the Council of Ministers in the new city of El Alamein, between Dr. Mohamed El Khayat, Chairman of NREA, and Eng. Hassan Amin, Country Director – Egypt, ACWA Power. The signing ceremony took place in the presence of the H.E. Dr. Moustafa Madbouly, Prime Minister of Egypt; H.E. Dr. Mohamed Shaker, the Egyptian Minister of Electricity; Mr. Mazyad bin Muhammad Al-Huwaishan, Consul General of Saudi Arabia in Alexandria, Eng. Sabah Mashaly, Chairman of EETC; and Marco Arcelli, CEO, ACWA Power. This MoU marks the next step in the development of this large-scale renewable energy facility.
The MoU allocates approximately 3,000 square kilometres of land west of Sohag, an urban centre, for the project. The wind project is expected to generate around 50 thousand gigawatt-hours of clean energy annually, providing electricity to around 11 million households and mitigating the impact of 25.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year.
The 10 GW wind power plant is expected to provide the Egyptian economy with US$6.5 billion savings in annual natural gas costs, in addition to creating up to 120,000 job opportunities; in direct employment in the construction phase is estimated at 45,000 people, and around 75 thousand people indirectly, in addition to adding about 2,500 jobs for the operation and maintenance phase after the completion.
ACWA Power has three other facilities in Egypt, that are either in operation, under construction or in advanced development, including a 120 MW solar PV project in Benban, a 200 MW solar PV facility in Kom Ombo, and the 1.1 GW Suez Wind Energy project. The company has had a presence in Egypt since 2015.
