By Anders Lorenzen

Against the backdrop of hosting the UN climate summit, COP27, Egypt have been keen to demonstrate they’re serious about climate action.

The country recently announced that its Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company have approved a major wind power project, developed by a company based in a country hostile to phasing out fossil fuels; Saudi Arabia. During the COP27 summit, the Saudis were one of two nations opposing the text pledging to phase out fossil fuels. The wind power project is to be developed by Saudi ACWA Power Company.

To power over a million homes

The 1.1 GW Suez Wind Energy project worth US$1.5 Billion project will be located in Suez Gulf and Gabal El Zeit province near Ras Gharib city and the project developers say that it be capable of powering 1,080,000 homes while offsetting nearly 2.4 million tons of emissions per year. It has received a series of critical financial backing from across the nearby region.

Mohammad Abunayyan, ACWA Power Chairman said about the project: “Suez Wind Energy was already a remarkable project because of its ambition and scale – bringing together investors from within the Arab world for this regional project proves that the will for implementation, the key mission of COP 27, is strong”.

According to the Egyptian energy ministry, the areas surrounding the Gulf of Suez as well as the region of the Sinai Peninsula offer great wind power conditions, and the country consistently observes high wind velocities and contains large uninhabited deserted areas — making it ideal for harvesting wind energy.

Egypt has an abundance of fossil fuel reserves many of which are offshore. As of 2021 the country had 1.6 GW of wind power installed, the 1.1 GW Suez Wind Energy project would nearly double that.  A host of other wind projects are also in the pipeline.