Egypt approves sale of Red Sea wind farm

Egypt’s energy and mineral resources ministry is to sell a major wind farm on the Red Sea as part of the country’s privatisation drive.

The cabinet approved the sale of Jabal Al-Zait at its weekly meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, a government spokesman said.

The wind farm in the eastern Red Sea governorate is one of several public entities to be sold off to the public within reforms recommended by the International Monetary Fund to expand the private sector’s role and spur growth.

“The cabinet approved the completion of procedures for offering power generation plants in Jabal Al-Zait which belongs to the New and Renewable Energy Authority, within the framework of the government’s privatisation programme,” Mohammed Al-Humsani said on the cabinet’s website.

“The government will continue to implement its privatisation programme to broaden the ownership base of companies and increase the attractiveness of the Egyptian market to both local and foreign investments,” he said, adding that the programme covers companies operating in energy, logistics, industry and telecommunications.

In October a Saudi news website quoted Egyptian officials as saying five companies from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, UK and other countries intend to bid for Jabal Al-Zait.

Acwa Power of Saudi Arabia, Dubai’s Alcazar, Actis from the UK and two other companies from Europe and Malaysia are on the list of bidders, Asharq business news website said.

Further reading:

• Saudi and UAE companies to bid for Egyptian wind farm
• UAE-led consortium to build $10bn wind farm in Egypt
• Egypt to float 40% of Gabal El Zeit wind power company

Jabal Al-Zait is spread over 100 square kilometres and has 300 wind turbines with a capacity of around 580MW.

Construction started in 2015 with the aim of increasing the amount of clean energy in the Egyptian national network and reducing fossil-fuel use.

The European Union provided a grant of €30 million ($35 million) to the project, which cost €340 million. Several other European donors also contributed.

The sale of public utilities has fetched Egypt nearly $5.8 billion since 2022, just below half the targeted sum of $12 billion, Asharq reported.