Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla stated that renewable energy projects will allow Egypt to accelerate its plan to export electricity and hydrogen to Europe within five years, he said in an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of COP27.

Egypt plans to send electricity to Cyprus and Greece through a cable passing through the Mediterranean. It also aims to export hydrogen, which can be used as a fuel for power stations.

El Molla added that “there’s a lot of advancement for this connectivity”, elaborating that Egypt is holding talks about implementing this cable. However, there is no information regarding funding the project.

The minister highlighted the wind farm projects that Egypt has entered with UAE’s Masdar, declaring that the electricity generated from the plant will be used locally and would help with the nation’s goals of having 40% of its energy mix be made up of renewables by 2030.

He also talked about other green projects including eliminating flaring at the country’s two liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals and investing in carbon-capture technology.

“The momentum that we got from having hosted COP 27 will help us to boom and speed up projects for emissions reduction,” El Molla said.