The presidents of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates signed an agreement on Tuesday to develop one of the world’s largest onshore wind projects in Egypt.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the UAE’s renewable energy firm, Masdar, alongside its joint venture with Egypt’s main renewable energy developer Infinity and Hassan Allam Utilities.

Masdar, invested in a portfolio of renewable energy assets with a combined value of more than $20 billion and a total capacity of more than 15 GW, said the new project would be its biggest yet.

“With this agreement to develop our largest ever project, Masdar is proud to bolster our contribution to Egypt’s renewable energy goals,” Masdar’s CEO Mohamed Jameel al-Ramahi said in a statement.

Tuesday’s agreement was signed on the sidelines of the ongoing COP27 climate summit in Egypt’s coastal city of Sharm El-Sheikh. The UAE is hosting the COP28 conference 2022.

When completed, the wind farm would be part of Egypt’s Green Corridor initiative, a grid dedicated to renewable energy projects that was aimed at ensuring renewable energy made up 42 per cent of the country’s energy mix by 2035.

The wind project would save Egypt an estimated $5 billion in annual natural gas costs, the statement said.

Egypt’s total installed power capacity was around 59.5 GW in 2019/2020, the country’s renewable energy authority said in an annual report.

(Reuters/NAN)