Egypt to study windfarm performance

Egypt plans to produce 20 of the country's electric power generation from renewable energy resources by 2020. It plans to have eight windfarms with 702 wind turbines and a total capacity of 545 megawatts MW in the Zafarana area on the Red Sea coast, 180 kilometers southeast of Cairo.

These projects have a varied range of capacities and technologies. The Ministry of Electricity and Energy, through subsidiary New and Renewable Energy Authority NREA, has managed and implemented all wind energy projects in Egypt since 1986.

In July 2010, KFW Bank granted funds to NREA to tender for a consultant to evaluate Zafarana windfarm performance, in hopes of increasing productivity and extending the operating life of the 702 wind turbines. The bidding will be in two rounds. The first will short-list the qualified companies, and the second will select the winner to execute the study.

In September 2010, Sargent & Lundy LLC, Germanischer Lloyd SE, Fichtner GmbH & Company KG, TUV Rheinland and Intec submitted their documents to NREA for the first round of bidding. According to an unofficial statement, NREA announced the short-listed companies and confirmed that Sargent & Lundy is among them.

The bid is the first step toward involving the private sector in windfarm management, as the private sector investment will fund the building of 3,200 MW worth of windfarms through build-own-operate-based projects by 2020, under the national plan to install 7,200 MW of wind- and solar-based power generation by 2020.