Saudi's ACWA Power announced on Tuesday that it has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) to develop one of the largest on-shore wind farms in the world and the largest in the Middle East at an investment of $1.5 billion.

The wind farm, with a production capacity of 1,100 megawatts (MW), will be located in the Gulf of Suez and Gabal al-Zayt regions, the company said in a stock exchange statement.

Suez Wind Energy Project Company, ACWA Power's project company, will develop, finance, build, own and operate the wind farm, the statement said

It said the first phase is expected to achieve Commercial Operation Date (COD) by the fourth quarter of 2025.

In a separate press statement, ACWA Power said the project is expected to reach financial close by the third quarter of 2024, and the plant would be commercially operational by the end of 2026.

The statement said ACWA Power would work with its consortium partner Hassan Allam Holding during the development phase to complete the site studies and secure the financing.
 
The wind farm is the Saudi company's third renewable energy project in Egypt after the 120MW Ben Ban solar independent power projects in the Aswan region and the 200MW Kom Ombo solar plant.

The press statement also noted that "the project will be designed to use state-of-art wind turbines with blade heights of up to 220 metres, which helps in achieving the best use of the designated land plots in the most efficient way."

(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)
(anoop.menon@lseg.com)