Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) aims to attract investments worth $13.7b to establish renewable energy projects with a capacity of 9,520 MW over the next seven years through tenders, direct contracts, or the feed-in tariff, NREA Chairman, Mohamed Salah El Sobky, told Daily News Egypt in an interview.

El Sobky also said that NREA thus targets boosting renewable energy contribution to national energy mix by around 20% by 2020, in line with the country’s strategy, informed Amwal Al Ghad. He clarified that the authority works to achieve this increase by issuing more new renewable energy projects.

In light of this, NREA is set to finalize a number of MoUs that have been signed recently with a number of international energy firms and start implementing them within the coming period to boost efficiency of national electricity grid as well as power plants capacities, El Sobky pointed out.

According to the chairman, renewable energy projects are set to represent a short-term core for Egypt’s economic development in line with a long-term strategy to create a sustainable energy mix through lowering the use of fossil fuel and traditional energy sources, Zawya informed.

Egypt is currently generating 750 MW through wind power and 2,800 MW by water power, thus the total capacity of renewable energy – after the 20% increase – is set to reach 12,000-13,000 MW by 2022. According to El Sobky, the mix is set to include 12% of wind, 4-5% of water, and 3-4% of solar power. The solar power projects are divided into two major technologies; photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP).

Accordingly, the Egyptian government works on diversifying power sources, whether the fossil fuel or available water resources, building a number of nuclear plants for generating power besides developing and spreading usage of renewable energy sources, El Sobky elaborated. The chairman further noted that the government is currently executing a number of projects mostly in Suez Gulf region.