Promising opportunities for renewable energy production in Egypt
Egypt has unique capabilities in this field, which allows the country to greatly advance this vital sector in line with Egypt's Vision 2030 and its goal to produce 42 percent of its total energy from renewable resources, she added.
El-Tayeb made these remarks during a press conference on Tuesday to announce the Energy Day Conference, scheduled for 2 February. The conference aims to find innovative solutions to develop Egypt's energy system.
"Reaching this goal requires collaboration between all relevant parties. Egypt, in particular, has distinguished scientists and researchers capable of significantly advancing the energy sector," El-Tayeb stated.
She added that the centre aims to support capacity building in Egyptian higher education institutions to encourage innovation, modernization, and investment in the energy sector through cooperation between Arizona State University and three Egyptian universities, namely Ain Shams University, Mansoura University, and Aswan University. "It is important to develop students' capabilities as well as those of faculty members in line with the labour market in the energy and sustainability sector. This is why COEE provides $4 million to fund faculty members' research projects," said El-Tayeb.
Mustafa Marei, Professor of Electrical and Mechanical Energy at Ain Shams University and Technical Adviser to the Centre, also pointed out the link between renewable energy development and scientific research. Such a link, he explained, shows the importance of supporting innovation to advance the renewable energy sector. Harnessing such opportunities to support innovations in renewable energy research would significantly benefit Egypt in producing green hydrogen and exporting it to markets abroad, Marei noted.
Still, he stressed the need to reduce the cost of energy production in Egypt and rationalize consumption by inventing appropriate maintenance methods. The centre, he explained, was working on just these issues and has recently provided $1 million to support the development of research laboratories in colleges specializing in energy studies.
The Egyptian cabinet announced last week that it approved Abydos for Renewable Energy's request for the "Golden License" for its photovoltaic power generation project in New Benban, Aswan Governorate, at a total cost of $850 million. The project will be established on 20 km² of land allocated by the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA). It is expected to generate 1,000 MW of electricity with a 600 MW/h energy storage system and create approximately 4,000 jobs.
Under its 2030 vision, Egypt plans to increase the electricity supply from renewable sources to 20 percent by 2022 and up to 42 percent by 2035. To achieve that goal, Egypt aims to produce 14 percent of its energy through wind, 2 percent through hydropower, 22 percent through photovoltaic (PV), and 3 percent through concentrated solar power (CSP) by 2035.