Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) started building on Tuesday the 250MW West Bakr wind farm, 30km north-west of Ras Gharib in the Gulf of Suez.
Under a turnkey engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contract, Siemens Gamesa will deploy its 96 SG 2.6-114 turbines. It will also offer maintenance services as part of a 15-year service agreement.
The wind farm is owned by renewable power generation company Lekela. The project is slated to become fully operational in 2021.
SGRE Onshore CEO Alfonso Faubel said “We are proud to have been selected to contribute to the ambitious goals in renewable energy the Government has set for the coming years.
“We aim to support the government to deliver long term and lasting impact for our communities, environmentally, economically and socially.”
On his end, Lekela CEO Chris Antonopoulos said “We have enjoyed working closely with Siemens Gamesa on Lekela’s first project in Egypt. We are proud to play a part in diversifying Egypt’s generation capacity by delivering best-in-class clean energy projects.
“As a long-term operator, we are focused on delivering lasting impact, which is why we focus on creating generation-spanning benefits for local communities.”
Once operational, the project will have the capacity to generate 1,000GWh per year, which will be sufficient to power more than 350,000 homes and offset 550,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.
SGRE will supply the first wind turbines for the site by mid-2020. Production of the wind turbine towers will be mostly carried out in Egypt. Local subcontractors will be responsible for work related to civil, electrical and logistic.
The West Bakr wind farm is expected to increase Egypt’s wind energy capacity by 18 percent. The wind farm has a power purchase agreement and network connection contract in place.
These agreements were signed with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company and the New and Renewable Energy Company Authority.
The wind farm falls under the Egyptian Government’s Build, Own, Operate (BOO) framework.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
