Cairo - Mubasher: The Emirati company "Al-Kazar" intends to launch a hybrid station that combines solar and wind energy to produce electricity with a capacity of up to 3.1 gigawatts, with expected investments of $2.5 billion in the Zafarana area in the east of the country.

Sources told the "Economy of the East with Bloomberg" platform that the planned station's capacity "is divided into 2 gigawatts of solar energy, in addition to 1.1 gigawatts of wind energy, and will be implemented under the build-operate-own (BOO) system, with the Emirati company implementing it, while the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, the state-owned company, is committed to purchasing the energy produced from the station . "

Egypt, the most populous Arab country, aims to increase the share of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix to 42% by 2030, compared to about 20% currently, as it aims to ease pressure on the use of natural gas in light of its recent decline in production .

The sources added, "The new station will be built on the site of the Zafarana wind farm, which has reached the end of its lifespan. " "Energy from the project will be purchased at an average price of 2 cents per kilowatt-hour for solar energy and about 3 cents per kilowatt-hour for wind energy throughout the life of the project. The Emirati company is expected to complete the project studies and financial closure before the end of 2025, and field work on the project site will begin in early 2022, according to the sources ."

The Zaafarana Wind Farm is one of the largest wind farms in Africa, covering an area of 120 square kilometers, with 700 turbines and producing 545 megawatts of electricity . Egypt had put the Zaafarana Wind Farm up for sale to foreign investors as part of its government offering program, and a number of bids were submitted from companies including Denmark's Maersk, but the government decided to postpone the offering process last October .

Egypt will provide the Emirati company with a land area of 60 thousand square meters under the usufruct system, in return for the government receiving 2% of the energy produced by the project.