Solar and wind energy get attention in Egypt
Egypt, Economics, 6/13/2005

Egypt is paying much attention to the renewable sources of energy as part of the strategies adopted by the electricity sector.

This statement by Minister of Electricity, Hassan Younis came during the opening session of the first German-Egyptian workshop on renewable energy at the German University in Cairo ( GUC ).

Minister Younis, German ambassador to Egypt, Martin Koebler, and GUC Prime Founder Asharf Mansour inaugurated the two-day workshop, entailed prospects for expanding the use of renewable energy in Egypt, which has been jointly organized by the German Ministry of Environment, the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity, the new and renewable energy authority (NREA), the German Embassy, and the German University in Cairo.

The workshop will look into ways of exploiting the renewable energy sources to provide clean and environment-friendly energy.

Minister Younis said that Egypt has tremendous potential for wind and solar power.

He cited plans for generating 850 megawatts from the wind farm in al-Zafarana by 2010.

Al-Zafarana currently provides 145 megawatts and work is underway to add 205 megawatts.

As for solar power, the Minister said that work on the first solar electricity plant in el-Korimat is in progress.

El Korimat is expected to generate 150 megawatts by 2008.

For his part, ambassador Koebler underlined the advantages of renewable energies, which "will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions."

As more power plants benefit from renewable energy, Egypt can export more oil and gas, instead of using them for domestic energy consumption," the ambassador said.

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