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China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
Photo from Xin Hua Net
Lack of electricity is a difficult problem in Egypt. Especially after several years of political turmoil, the local power infrastructure has become more and more aging.
Egypt and China are cooperating on a series of projects in production, distribution, transportation and services of electricity, Hamzah said in an exclusive interview on 6th Sept.
China and Egypt signed two deals during a just-concluded visit to China by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who participated in the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on Sept. 3-4.
The deals include construction of a power plant in Hamrawein region at the Red Sea coast, 500 miles away from Cairo. The plant will be built by China's Shanghai Electric and Dongfang Electric Cooperation and Egypt's Hassan Allam Construction with investments worth of 4.4 billion U.S. dollars.
The other deal is to build a 600-meter-high pumping and storage station, which will rank the fourth worldwide, in the Suez Canal Mountain of Ataka.
The station will be built by Chinese Sinohydro Company in six years. It will have a production capacity of 2,400 megawatt with eight units and cost 2.6 billion U.S. dollars, Hamzah added.
Egypt aims to meet 20 percent of its energy needed from renewable sources by 2022 and up to 40 percent by 2035. Renewable energy currently meets only about three percent of Egypt's needs.
Acute power shortages after Egypt's 2011 uprising led to frequent summer blackouts and cuts of industrial outputs.
Egypt suffered a shortage of electricity in 2014 of 6,000 megawatt, amounting to one quarter of its production, Hamzah added.
