Egypt’s $10 billion wind farm is scheduled to open in 2026

Construction of one of the world’s largest wind farms in Egypt will begin in March 2026, the company said, as devastating power cuts during the scorching summer underline the North African country’s energy needs.

The onshore megaproject, which will cost more than $10 billion, will start generating electricity in 2032, according to Mohamed Ismail Mansour, CEO of Infinity Power, a joint venture between Egypt’s Infinity and Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy giant Masdar.

Construction on the 10-gigawatt project was supposed to start this year but has been delayed due to the land acquisition process in the western Sohag region of Upper Egypt, Mansour said in an interview.

Securing new energy sources is an urgent issue for Egypt, which has been struggling for about a year with planned power outages due to rising temperatures and other problems that have left authorities struggling to meet the electricity needs of the country’s more than 105 million people.

Although the country has significant gas deposits off its coast and is a valued exporter to Europe, this year it is forced to become an importer again, and LNG purchases are expected to be the highest since 2018.

Authorities have earmarked $1.2 billion in additional energy imports, including heavy fuel oil, to end supply cuts this summer, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Tuesday.

The energy that will eventually be generated by the Sohag farm would be a boon for Egypt, which plans to decommission some of its gas-fired power plants as renewable energy production increases. The country has an ambitious goal to increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix to 42 percent by 2030.

According to Mansour, Egypt is one of the few countries in Africa where the grid is expected to grow fast enough to absorb such new power.

“Grids pose a big challenge” for developers of larger energy projects, he added.

Cameroon entry

On the broader continent, Infinity Power aims to increase its capacity from 1.3 gigawatts to 10 gigawatts by 2030. Some of that could happen in Cameroon, where it plans to raise $2 billion in debt and equity to develop smaller-scale projects that collectively produce 4 gigawatts.

These projects, centered in western Cameroon, may include solar, wind, battery storage and biomass facilities. The capacity of each will be relatively small – about 50 megawatts for solar or 100 for wind – to avoid putting too much strain on the grid, Mansour said.

African countries are organizing themselves into regional pools that allow them to trade energy with each other. This allows them to attract investment into transnational markets, which could benefit parts of central and west Africa, which have some of the lowest electrification rates in the world and the highest electricity costs in sub-Saharan Africa.

Infinity Power is also looking to expand its operations in South Africa after acquiring a 60 percent stake in Amsterdam-based Lekela Power last year. The stock was worth about $1 billion, Bloomberg reported before the sale. The company also bought 40 percent of the shares from Mainstream Renewable Power Africa Holdings, becoming the sole owner of Lekela.

Infinity Power has five wind projects in South Africa and is keen to continue working there, although the country has “learned” since challenges at Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd forced the utility to withdraw available capacity, Mansour said.

To reduce risk, the company is analyzing more than 10 projects in different regions instead of focusing on one area, he added.

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