The World Bank is set to hand Egypt a soft loan of around £160 million ($28 million) to finance three renewable energy projects, the country’s electricity and energy minister said.

The projects include a 200 megawatt capacity wind power plant and a network to bring power onshore from wind farms in the Gulf of Suez, Hassan Younes said in remarks reported by state-owned news agency MENA.

Some of the money would subsidise the cost of wind power and cover the difference in price paid by the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company and investors in the projects, he added.

Egypt has been developing wind power along its Red Sea coast. It already has farms at Zafarana and Hurghada, while the authorities have said they will soon seek bids for a private wind farm.

The government plans to generate 20% of Egypt’s energy needs from renewable resources by 2020.

(Upstream Online)