Why Egypt Is Ramping Up Photograph Voltaic Vitality Now

You rise up inside the small hours, the air is thick, and the fan has stopped. Otherwise you could be halfway via an internet primarily based class, a gathering, or a look at session, and the show goes black. That was the soundtrack of ultimate summer season season for lots of homes all through Egypt, as scheduled power cuts moved from rumour to routine.

The pattern had a set off. Within the summertime of 2024, and as soon as extra in 2025, a fierce heatwave hit Egypt, putting a toll on electrical power. The federal authorities in June 2024 resorted to three-hour power cuts whereas it scrambled for additional gasoline. That’s known as “load-shedding”, a scheduled switch-off {of electrical} power to avoid wasting a number of gasoline.

To plug the opening of gasoline shortage, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly acknowledged in June 2024 that Egypt wished USD 1.18 billion worth of gasoline (EGP 56.6 billion). Officers said the cuts would stop in July 2024 as quickly as additional gasoline shipments arrived. The message was straightforward: when gasoline is tight, lights go off or the gasoline bill jumps.

Why photograph voltaic is the wise reply

Egypt nonetheless makes most of its electrical power from pure gasoline. When native gasoline falls fast, the nation buys Liquefied Pure Gas (LNG) from abroad. Egypt is negotiating LNG supplies with Qatar, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia, and has signed presents with Shell and Full Energies for cargoes in early 2025. In 2025, the U.S. Vitality Information Administration (EIA) reported that Egypt is purchasing for further LNG and chartering three additional FSRUs (floating terminals that flip LNG once more into gasoline) to cowl demand. The Cabinet moreover said Egypt would import LNG from July 2025 to June 2026 to get via the next summer season season. These steps protect the grid working, nonetheless they’re pricey in distinction with developing further native photograph voltaic.

The strategic reply is to raise the share of unpolluted power. In 2023, the federal authorities revealed its plans for renewables to offer 42 p.c of Egypt’s electrical power by 2030. Within the current day, renewables present about 11.5 p.c of Egypt’s electrical power, as per the latest authorities decide reiterated publicly at COP27 in late 2024,  which means the nation would need to roughly quadruple the share of unpolluted power inside the mix by 2030 to fulfill its purpose. 

In late 2024, Madbouly known as for worldwide finance to enhance the grid. Hitting the 42 p.c purpose means together with big photograph voltaic and wind crops and as well as connecting smaller packages on rooftops, schools, and firms.

By May 2025, Egypt had about 7.7 gigawatts (GW) of renewables (photograph voltaic, wind, and hydro blended). A yr earlier, the nation had roughly 7.4 GW;  4.6 GW of wind and photograph voltaic, plus 2.8 GW of hydropower. In plain phrases: full clear functionality grew year-on-year, even after the huge wave of photograph voltaic constructing at Benban earlier inside the decade. The Benban Photograph voltaic Park near Aswan stays the anchor of Egypt’s photograph voltaic fleet, collectively producing about 1.5–1.65 GW for the nationwide grid. 

As for newer initiatives, on 15 June 2025, Egypt secured financing for a 1-GW photograph voltaic plant with Scatec, an important photograph voltaic developer in Egypt. Collectively, they signed a USD 600 million (EGP 28.8 billion) funding and a power-purchase settlement for 900 MW of wind worth USD 1 billion (EGP 48 billion). 

Smaller packages matter as properly. Properties, shops, and campuses can be a part of beneath web metering, which suggests you utilize your photo voltaic power first and ship any additional to the grid for credit score in your bill. They’re greatest for patrons with essential daytime consumption and in tariff bands the place daytime fees are bigger. The regulator’s current tariff desk, in energy since 1 September 2024, reveals what you pay per kilowatt-hour on each band, so heavy daytime clients (workshops, clinics, schools) can see their attainable payback further clearly.

Why Egypt’s photo voltaic supplies photograph voltaic an edge

Egypt is usually a naturally sunny place to tune further to this pure helpful useful resource. Nationwide and World Monetary institution-backed devices current sturdy photograph voltaic sources: spherical 3,000 hours of sunshine a yr in a number of areas, and extreme photograph voltaic radiation from the Nile Valley to Larger Egypt. Further photo voltaic hours and stronger radiation suggest each panel can generate further electrical power.

However, there’s nonetheless a bottleneck to unravel: the grid. Take into account the grid as a result of the “roads and bridges” {of electrical} power: the huge pylons (high-voltage traces) and substations that carry power from the place it’s made (Benban in Larger Egypt, wind inside the Gulf of Suez) to the place it’s used (Cairo, the Delta, industrial zones). In the intervening time, these “roads” are busy, and some stretches are too slender for the extra website guests from new photograph voltaic and wind crops. That’s the rationale even with a whole lot of sunshine and ready consumers, initiatives shall be delayed until there’s space on the traces.

First, decrease than 12 p.c of Egypt’s virtually 60 GW of put in functionality was renewable as of mid-2024, which means most power nonetheless received right here from gasoline and older crops. Second, the nationwide renewables full did rise 0.3 GW year-on-year, from mid-2024 Mid 2025; however, to achieve the required 42 p.c by 2030, way more new initiatives should be plugged in sooner than the infrastructure can presently cater.

Officers say they’re fast-tracking clean-energy connections via the Beneath Egypt’s Nexus for Water, Meals and Vitality (NWFE) platform so priority initiatives can feed power into the neighborhood sooner than peak summer season season demand.

 To make that potential, the European Monetary establishment for Reconstruction and Enchancment’s (EBRD) is in parallel financing a grid-reinforcement mission. A model new 500 kV substation in Cairo and about 200 km of newest 500 kV traces, which might switch photograph voltaic from Larger Egypt, the place it’s sunny, and wind from the coastal house into areas of major lots.

 The monetary establishment’s paperwork describe the substation as “important for the soundness of the neighborhood” and say the enhance is instantly linked to closing the Shoubra El-Kheima gasoline plant with out risking present. In straightforward phrases; further high-voltage traces together with bigger substations finish in further room for photograph voltaic and wind to flow into, fewer bottlenecks, and fewer need for emergency gasoline in scorching months. With out these wires and substations, new photograph voltaic fields can’t ship their power to homes or shops, even when the panels are already inside the desert. 

Put merely, ultimate yr’s blackouts confirmed the worth of relying on gasoline alone. This yr’s plan is to buy time with imported gasoline whereas together with further photograph voltaic and wind, large and small, and strengthening the grid that carries them. 

Reaching the deliberate 42 p.c by 2030 now will rely on holding that assemble on schedule and plugging each mission proper right into a grid that’s ready for it.