Italcementi to set Up 120 MW Wind Farm

A unit of Italcementi will build Egypt’s first privately owned wind farm as part of the country’s drive to boost capacity to 7200 MW by 2020.The company will set up the 120 MW wind farm in the Gulf of Suez, east of Cairo, through one of its energy arms, Italgen. Italcementi has a majority stake in Suez Cement, which, in turn, owns Torah Cement and Helwan Cement.

Reuters reports that Aktham Abul Ela, a senior official at the Electricity and Energy Ministry, has said the energy generated could be fed into the national grid by 2012. The country aims to generate 12% of its power from wind farms out of a total of 20% from renewable sources by 2020 and is seeking to attract US$110 billion in investments in its energy sector by 2027. Egypt already has wind farms at Zafarana and Hurghada in the area and has installed capacity of 430 MW of wind energy.

In November 2009 Egypt shortlisted 10 firms for a 240 MW wind project to be run on a build-own operate basis. According to the World Bank, the government is likely to launch the second round of bidding in mid-2011 for the project due to start in 2014.

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