( 39.00 : Solar PV : #ffff99 : Solar PV in Egypt )    ( 20.00 : Solar CSP : #fa2910 : Solar CSP in Egypt )    ( 750.00 : Onshore Wind : #669900 : Wind Power in Egypt)    ( 2891.00 : Hydro Power : #3399ff  : Hydro Power in Egypt )    

Current Situation and Future Targets

As of 2017 Egypt as a total installed capacity of 45,2 GW with an annual generated energy of 186,32 TWh.

In 2016, renewable energies (including Hydro) only had a share of 10 % in the Egyptian energy generation mix. Hydro power has the biggest installed capacity out of all renewables, with 2,842 GW, making Wind power the second with 750 MW and a generated energy of about 12600 GWh. Currently Solar power only adds up to a total of 220 MW (CSP 140 MW / PV 80 MW). According to the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy, Egypt has huge potential capacities in every of these energy sources, with a potential of more than 50 GW in solar and 30 GW in wind power.^[2]

Renewable Energies have due the abundance of land, hours of sunshine and high wind speeds a huge potential to become a billion-dollar market in Egypt. The Government intends to accumulate 20 Percent of the generated electricity in the year 2022 by renewable energy sources. Wind power will be providing the highest share with 12 percent, making Hydro and Solar power the second and third biggest portion with 5.8 and 2.2 percent. Over a Period of five years the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy wants to add 51.3 GW of installed renewable energy capacity.^[4]

The Egyptian government plans according to their solar energy campaign to install 3.5 GW by the year 2027. Photovoltaic will accumulate up to 2.8 GW whereas concentrated solar power (CSP) will add another 700 MW. This strategy towards an energy market, based on renewable sources, also includes the generation of 7.2 GW from Wind power by 2022. To accomplish these goals a huge part of the initiatives and investments must be provided by private sector investments.

Government policy

Egypt continues to rely on non-renewable energy sources by more than 90% to meet its needs while increasing energy consumption by 5-7% annually^[6], which is has negative effects on the environment and the countries budget. There is no doubt that the location of Egypt gives it privileges envied by various countries, especially the European, and that the proper harnessing of these characteristics can raise the productive capacity of renewable energy enormous lifting, from the generation of energy from the High Dam through taking them from the wind and to absorb it from the sun. According to Egypt's Renewable Energy Authority, Egypt is keen to cover 20% of its needs by producing "clean energy" by 2020, 12% of which is wind power and 6% is hydroelectricity, and 2% solar energy.^[7]

The government adopted policies aimed at liberalizing electricity prices, balancing by 2019 by gradually phasing out subsidies, allocating mandatory quotations for consumers to purchase electricity from renewable energy projects at their economic prices, and stimulate the contribution of the private sector to the implementation of 67% of the total renewable energy projects whereas the Government recognizes that reforms are necessary to attract private sector investment and the new electricity law is making serious attempts to address private sector concerns.

Recently, the Egyptian government has signed the financial closing agreements with 13 companies for the establishment of solar photovoltaic projects with a total installed capacity of about 590 megawatts in the area of Banban, north of Aswan city within the program of the tariff of nutrition.^[8]

Statistics

Thanks to the average solar brightness of 2,000 to 3,200 kilowatt-hours per square meter per year^[9], Egypt has remarkable potential for solar energy. However, the capacity of solar projects has been slow so far because of the high investment costs, but Egypt has recently moved to expand its solar capacity as the average daily brightness of the sun ranges between 9.3 - 10.8 hours / day. In the north it ranges from 6-8 hours / day, while in the south it is between 8-10 hours / day. The number of hours of sunshine increases in summer to a maximum of 12 hours per day in June and July.

About 75% of Egypt's electricity is produced by natural gas, with the remainder being fuelled by oil(17%) and renewable energy (mostly hydro, 7%) despite the high potential for renewable energy sources, in particular, wind and solar, their weight in the Egyptian generation mix is currently fairly limited to 1.7%.^[10]

Egypt is recognised as having some of the world’s best wind resources, especially in the Gulf of Suez area, with significant additional potential along the east and west banks of the Nile. According to the Egypt Wind Energy Association, 700 square kilometres have been set aside for new wind projects in the Gebel el-Zayt area which has wind speeds of 11 metres a second.

According to the Ministry of Electricity statistics for the year 2016, the Gulf of Suez region enjoys very high wind speeds. The areas west of the Gulf are promising for the establishment of large wind farm projects; they have sites with average high wind speeds ranging from 8 to 10 meters. The desert areas are uninhabited, as well as the eastern and western areas of the Nile Valley, along Beni Suef and Menia, with wind speeds ranging from 7 to 8 meters / second.^[12]

Energy Transition

The total transformers capacities on high voltage and extra-high voltage reached 110.656 MVA in 2016. The average growth rate is 4,8 % per year since 2011. The high voltage and extra high voltage grid works on 5 levels between 33 kV and 500 kV. The average accession rate of total transfer lines and cables is 0,7% per year during the period from 2011 till 2016.

Electrical Interconnections and electrical exchange with Egypt exist with Libya, Jordan Syria and Lebanon.^[14]

Sources

Hydroelectric

Egypt has a total of 2.8 gigawatts of Hydropower installed.^[15] Hydropower in Egypt has a technically potential of about 50.000 GWh per year.

This potential is mostly depending on the condition and the flow of the Nile River. Although Egypt is currently only supplying about 9% of their electricity from hydro electrical power plants, the government has plans to vastly increase that number. There are not only plans to upgrade existing power plants, there are also new hydropower projects in the planning, containing new power plants as well as pumped storage plants as the PSP Ataqa with an installed capacity of 2.100 MW.^[16]

The Government of Egypt allocated an 7.845 square kilometer area in the Nile Banks and the Gulf of Suez to implement new wind farms.^[17]

Wind power

With perfect wind speed conditions in large regions on the Nile banks in parts of Sinai and in the Western and Eastern Desert, Egypt has perfect conditions to upscale its wind power program.^[18] The Government has a published National Wind Atlas, measuring wind speeds over a long-time period to identify the best spots for future wind power projects. Egypt is planning to generate 6.8 GW, which equals about 12 percent of generated electricity, from wind energy by the year 2022. In cooperation with different Countries several large-scale wind parks have been built since the year 2001. These projects led into huge increases in Egypt imports for renewables.^[19] In 2018 Egypt has licenced four wind farms with a total capacity of 1,4 GW.

Recently, the Ministry of Electricity and renewable Energy has launched a project in the Suez bay - with average wind speeds of 10.5 m/sec^[20] - which will be the largest wind farm in the Middle East. This project involves funding of the European Union, the German Development Bank and the French Development Agency. With its huge potential in wind power generation, Egypt hopes to gather the Attraction of local and international investors.^[21]

Solar power

Egypt has a superior potential for Solar Power. It is considered as a sun-belt country and its solar atlas specifies that the direct solar radiation is mount up to 2000 to 3000 kwh/m²/a. The sun shines from 9 hours to 11 hours per day with few cloudy days.^[22][23] Furthermore only 5% of the land is build-up and huge parts are desert, what gives a tremendous space for Solar Power Plants.^[24] In 2016 the total capacity of Solar Power was adding up to 45 MW.^[25]

Solar Power didn’t had an important role in Egypt’s energy mix for a long period. Though in the last few years the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) initiated and implemented several Photovoltaic and CSP Projects to raise the Capacity of Solar Power.^[26]

There are also International Corporations like the IFC and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which want to take part on the Egyptian solar market by funding big solar park projects.

Photovoltaic

The strategy of the Government provides to install 2,8 GW with photovoltaic systems by 2027. Due to economic advantages Egypt deviated from their Plan from 2012 to focus on solar thermal power plants and mainly centre on photovoltaic.^[29][30]

To boost the Photovoltaic sector in Egypt the EEHC and his affiliated companies have taken the initiative to install photovoltaic systems on the top of the roofs of their administrative Buildings with a combined capacity of almost 7000 kW.^[31]

The Siwa 10 MW PV Power plant got completed in March 2015. It is one of the biggest PV diesel Hybrid systems all over the world and the first utility-scale photovoltaic installation in Egypt. It supplies up to 6000 homes with electricity, what makes 30% of the grid capacity of Siwa-City.^[32]

There are Projects in Pipeline like the 200 MW photovoltaic Power Plant at Kom Ombo or the 20 MW photovoltaic Power Plant next to the Hurghada wind Farm. The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EECC) started to receive bids for the Kom Ombo power plant in March 2018.^[33]

Concentrated Solar Power

According to Egypt’s Solar Plan, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Power Plants should make a share of 700 MW in the electric energy mix till 2027. Beside the production of electric power, the Government plans to use CSP Power Plants for water desalination.

The first solar thermal power plant in Egypt was built in 2011 at Kurayamat. It has a total capacity of 140 MW though the part of parabolic-through based energy is 20 MW. The rest gets generated with natural gas.^[37]

Besides the intended PV power plant in Kom Ombo there has also been a Plan for a 100 MW concentrated solar Power installation. Concerning to cost differences the Government decided to build the PV power Plant instead of the CSP installation.

The Multipurpose Applications by Thermodynamic Solar (MATS) power plant got inaugurated in February 2018 at the city of Borg El-Arab near Alexandria. This power plant got invented as a part of a project with research institutes and industrial partners from Italy, France, UK, Germany and Egypt. The System runs with molten salt and a storage, what gives the opportunity to produce Energy 4 hours after sunset.^[38]

Other Renewable Energy Sources

There are no Information about the potential for Biomass and Geothermal given for Egypt. As well there is no intended ambition or advancement known for these sectors by the Government.

Public opinion

Since 2007, Egypt has experienced a large gap between energy demand and supply. Energy demand growth rates at current economic growth rates of not more than 3% are offset by an increase in energy demand of about 10%, while government plans to reach economic growth rates over the next four years to about 5.5%, which means in the weakest conditions the demand for energy supplies increased by about 100%.^[39]

When Egypt announced plans to develop renewable energy projects in 2014, investors attracted by the sun's sunshine swept through the year and chronic power cuts. But two years later, many projects stopped, which hurt the confidence of foreign investors that Egypt desperately needs.

Egypt continues its efforts to attract private support for the renewable energy sector capital, while solar energy provides an opportunity to attract financing for a value of not less than six billion dollars until 2019.

It has been considered that the promotional policies should be implemented to raise awareness of the importance of alternative energy, especially solar energy and how to use it, especially as it is a natural and sustainable resource in Egypt. As well as the production of an Egyptian component in the field of renewable energy applications competing with the imported product, supporting projects and cities that rely on alternative energy (solar energy - wind power) and the introduction of smart farming systems.^[40]

References