Week in Middle East: Egypt considers 6.3 GW wind energy, concentrated solar power and PV projects and A new module factory in Bahrain

Egypt considers 6.3 GW wind energy, concentrated solar power and PV projects

The New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) is studying requests to build power plants at a total capacity of 6.34GW, of which 2.75GW projects are by the private sector. NREA Head Mohamed Al-Khayat told Daily News Egypt that the potential projects include photovoltaic power plants with a capacity of 170MW and wind farms of 250MW by the public sector on one hand, and other 1,950MW wind farms and 800MW photovoltaic power plants by the private sector. Al-Khayyat said Egypt’s total electricity production capacity amounted to 20.782bn KWh in 2019, including 14.597bn KWh from hydroelectricity plants, 3.270bn KWh from wind farms, and roughly 2.403bn KWh from solar parks. In addition, traditional thermal power plants produced 4.7m KWh. The country’s total fuel savings reached about 4.3m tonnes of oil equivalent.

A new module factory in Bahrain

Bahrain-based Solartecc Green Energy Factory is building a 25 MW capacity solar module manufacturing facility at the Bahrain International Investment Park. The production equipment will be supplied by Italian provider Ecoprogetti. “The manufacturer will produce high-efficiency mono PERC modules,” an Ecoprogetti spokesperson told pv magazine. “The line has a current capacity of 25 MW but it may be easily expanded to 50 MW.” Production is planned from the third quarter, when Solartecc will manufacture double-glass and glass-backsheet panels and polycrystalline products. “The panels produced there may have all kind of applications, from the residential segment to the large scale business,” added the Ecoprogetti spokesperson.