Loan for Egypt wind farms passed by Opec Fund

A $40 million loan to Egypt to support the construction of two wind farms in the Gulf of Suez and Jabal Al-Zeit regions has been approved by the Opec Fund for International Development.

The two wind farms, with a total capacity of 1.1GW, will provide energy to more than 1.3 million households and contribute to Egypt’s goal of sourcing more than 40 percent of electricity from renewables in the next 15 years, the Opec Fund said.

The $1.5 billion Suez Wind project, which is being co-developed by the Egyptian investment and development company Hassan Allam Utilities and the Saudi energy company Acwa Power, will be one of the largest onshore wind farms in the world.

The Opec Fund for International Development is a Vienna-based intergovernmental development finance institution established in 1976 by the member states of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE.

As well as Opec, funding for Egypt’s latest wind farm project has also been provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which will give up to $200 million in senior debt financing, and by the African Development Bank, which funded a loan of up to $170 million. 

The Suez Wind project is expected to be commercially operational by the end of 2026.

In October Egypt cut its renewable energy goal for 2040 from 58 percent down to 40 percent. Karim Badawi, the minister for petroleum, said the country would focus on natural gas in order to meet increasing energy demand.