Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) plans to invite bids within weeks to set up solar and wind power plants with total capacities exceeding 2,000 MW, a report said.

Rules regulating tenders will be determined according to technologies targeted by the projects, and the capacities sought will be based on the national electricity grid’s ability to accommodate them, reported Daily News Egypt, quoting NREA head Mohamed Salah Sobky.
 
Offers worth $8 billion were made by Arab and foreign companies to establish the plants, the report quoted an NREA official.

The companies include Gigawatt Global, Spain’s Vestas, Chinese company Suntech, the Saudi foundation Aldosary, China’s Shanghai, El-Rehab for Projects & Trade, Cypriot company Masdar, First Solar, and China’s XD-Egemac, the report said.

Contracts and agreements to buy the power generated from the plants are being prepared to begin the projects’ implementation, according to Sobky.

The projects will be launched by Siemens, a German technology company, said Sobky.

The projects include power generation from wind energy at a capacity of 2,000 MW and investments of $4 billion, and a turbine factory producing 300 blades per year for 100 turbines, with a capacity of 340 MW annually, the report said.

Siemens will manage the needed financing of the projects, said Sobky, noting the NREA will pay for the value of loans and the financing. The projects will be implemented in western and eastern areas of the Nile, and the Suez Gulf on the Red Sea coast.