Egypt needs to invest nearly $1billion into a wind energy project to produce around one GW of electricity, far above the solar energy costs, the country’s Electricity and Renewable Energy Minister has said.

Mahmud Esmat told local reporters on Sunday that Egypt would push ahead with plans to nearly double the uses of renewable energy by 2030 although he acknowledged the difficulty of attaining that target.

“Every GW of electricity from wind energy projects requires the investment of nearly $1 billion compared with $600 million for solar energy projects,” he said.

Esmat said Egypt’s ‘revised’ 2040 energy strategy targets a 42 percent share for renewable energy by 2030.

“This is a big challenge…but we have already signed agreements for large projects to achieve that goal…some investors have started to import equipment and other materials to start these projects,” the Minister said.

A government report said in early 2024 Egypt is planning to attract nearly $83 billion into solar energy and other renewables projects in the next few years as part of a push to expand renewable sources in its energy mix.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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