Egypt Signs EU Deal for Up to $788 Million to Upgrade Electricity Grid

Egypt signed a deal with the European Union in June for a financing package valued at up to $788 million to expand and upgrade its electricity transmission network. The package includes a $686 million loan from the European Investment Bank’s EIB Global and up to $103 million in European Commission grants.

The state-owned Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company will lead the project, which aims to power the grid with 22 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade, enough to supply 10 million homes.

Egypt aims to generate 42 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030 and over 60 percent by 2040. The country has solar irradiance levels between 2,000 and 3,200 kilowatt-hours per square meter annually. The European Commission contracted Cowater International to assess Egypt’s energy strategy over the next two decades.

By 2025 Egypt had signed around 32 power purchase agreements with private developers to produce 1,465 megawatts of renewable energy. Existing and planned projects include the 1.8 gigawatt Benban Solar Park and AMEA Power’s 2 gigawatt development with 900 megawatt-hours of battery storage plus a 500 megawatt facility at the Abydos Kom Ombo Solar PV Park.

In January Egypt signed renewable energy deals worth a combined $1.8 billion.

These included a solar plant with Scatec in Minya, Upper Egypt, with 1.7 gigawatts capacity and 4 gigawatt-hours of battery storage. Sungrow will develop a battery manufacturing facility in the Suez Canal Economic Zone and supply batteries to the Scatec plant. Scatec also signed a power purchase agreement for 1.95 gigawatts of capacity and 3.9 gigawatt-hours of storage systems.