Lekela wins contract to build 250MW wind farm in Egypt
PPA agreement has been signed with the EETC and Egypt’s Minister of Energy
Lekela has announced that it has signed an agreement with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) and Egypt’s Minister of Energy. The power purchase agreement (PPA) will see the firm develop a 250MW wind farm in the Gulf of Suez.
The project is part of the government’s Build, Own, Operate (BOO) framework and the wind farm is expected to be built approximately 30KM northwest of Ras Ghareb. The location was chosen as it benefits from strong wind currents and so is expected to enable the wind farm to sell competitively priced power to the EETC.
Detailed environmental and technical studies have already been conducted on the site and construction of the wind farm is expected to begin in 2018.
“The initialing of the PPA marks an important step for Lekela and its partners. This is part of our long-term strategic plan to deliver renewable energy to Egypt and support the diversification of its generation capacity at a highly competitive price. Our progress in Egypt mirrors our development efforts across the African market. Generating clean, renewable and competitively priced power continues to be a priority in many countries across the continent and we are looking forward to further announcements in South Africa, Ghana and Senegal in due course,” explained Chris Antonopoulos, CEO of Lekela.
Demand for electricity in Egypt is growing at 6% per year and is predicted to continue to grow at this rate for the next decade. Currently, 86% of the country’s power comes from gas-fired power plants, which has recently driven the government to move towards renewable energy generation.
