COP27: UAE, Egypt To Build World's Largest Onshore Wind Project
The presidents of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt signed an agreement on Tuesday to develop one of the world's largest onshore wind projects in Egypt, according to an official statement on the Gulf nation's state news agency, WAM.
According to a statement on WAM, the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the UAE's renewable energy firm Masdar and its joint venture with Egypt's main renewable energy developer Infinity and Hassan Allam Utilities.
Masdar, which has a portfolio of renewable energy assets worth more than USD 20 billion and a total capacity of more than 15 GW, said that the new project would be its largest yet.
“Masdar is proud to bolster our contribution to Egypt's renewable energy goals with this agreement to develop our largest ever project,” Masdar CEO Mohamed Jameel al-Ramahi said.
The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt's coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh on Tuesday.
The United Arab Emirates will host the COP28 conference next year.
When finished, the wind farm will be part of Egypt's Green Corridor initiative, a grid dedicated to renewable energy projects that aims to make renewable energy account for 42 per cent of the country's energy mix by 2035.
According to the statement, the wind project would save Egypt USD 5 billion in annual natural gas costs.
According to a yearly report from the country's renewable energy authority, Egypt's total installed power capacity was around 59.5 GW in 2019-20.
“The project will enable the country to save vast amounts of natural gas, thereby achieving economic growth, reducing carbon emissions and providing greater access to sustainable energy sources,” said Mohamed Mansour, chairman of Infinity Power, a joint venture between Masdar and Infinity.
Masdar and Hassan Allam Utilities signed two Memorandums of Understanding in April with Egyptian state-backed organisations to collaborate on developing four gigatonnes of green hydrogen production plants in the Suez Canal Economic Zone and along the Mediterranean coast.
According to the statement, the first phase of the project will see the development and operation of a green hydrogen manufacturing facility capable of producing 100,000 tonnes of e-methanol annually for Suez Canal bunkering by 2026.
According to the company, the electrolyzer facilities could be expanded to 4 GW by 2030, producing 2.3 million tonnes of green ammonia for export and supplying green hydrogen to local industries.
