Egypt’s energy transition surges ahead with inauguration of 252 MW wind farm

To meet increasing energy needs in Egypt, the government decided to implement the 252 MW Gulf of Suez wind power plant to produce clean energy. Located in Egypt at the Gulf of Suez (Red Sea) near Ras Ghareb, around 120 km northwest of Hurghada, the project comprises 70 Vestas wind turbines with a capacity of 3.6 MW each. It was inaugurated on May 28, 2024. Tractebel’s Renewable Energy team from Germany was on hand for the event, as were the Egyptian Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy, the Chairman of the New & Renewable Energy Authority NREA, delegates from the European Union and the European financing institutions KfW, EIB, and AFD, and the Ambassadors of Germany, France, Denmark and the EU.

Scenes from the inauguration of the Gulf of Suez wind farm on May 28, 2024 ©NREA

Tractebel was the implementation engineer and is involved for the next three years of wind farm operation 

Tractebel was engaged by the client New & Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), Ministry of Electricity & Renewable Energy in Egypt, at an early stage when the project tender documents were to be finalized in 2018. Construction works on site started in 2021. Tractebel experts were responsible for the following:

• Finalizing Request for Proposal documents
• Assistance during tendering, tender evaluation, contract negotiations, contract preparation
• Factory inspections and factory acceptance tests
• Construction and commissioning supervision under the engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) contract stipulations
• Implementation of the 220 kV electrical substation
• Evaluation of trial test
• WTG walk-down and punch list generation
• Performance monitoring during the first three years of operation (ongoing)
• Evaluation of migratory bird protection (ongoing)

A section of the Gulf of Suez wind farm, as seen from the top of a turbine

The project is financed by KfW Development Bank (leading financing agency) in cooperation with the European Union (EU), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the French Development Agency (AFD).

The 70 turbines of the 252-MW wind farm will save roughly 500,000 tons of emissions each year

Protecting migratory birds
The Red Sea coast is known for large bird migrations, including white storks and white pelicans. To protect the area’s nearly 40 different bird species, bird watchers are observing the wind farm’s surroundings during migration periods from August to November and from February to May with telescopes and binoculars. As flocks of birds are observed, the bird watchers give commands to the wind farm operators to shut down the respective wind turbines to protect the birds from collision with the rotating turbine blades. The loss of energy due to these shutdowns is expected to be less than 0.5%.

White storks (© NREA)

“Tractebel is proud to play a key role in this decarbonization project, which will contribute to Egypt’s ambitious goal of 42% renewable energy by 2030. Due to excellent wind conditions of approximately 10 m/s average wind speed, this 252 MW wind power project can generate 1,200 gigawatt hours annually, which will eliminate 500,000 tons of CO₂ emissions year by year. This new wind farm is beneficial on a global scale, as climate change knows no borders.”

Thilo Kaemper, Tractebel Project Manager, Wind Energy

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