The London-based European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is considering lending €70mn ($80mn) to a consortium led by Netherlands-based Lekela Power, which is looking to build a 250MW wind farm 30km northwest of Ras Gharib on Egypt’s Gulf of Suez. EBRD says the project will cost $326mn in total and be developed under build-own-operate (BOO) terms.
Egypt currently has 752MW of wind capacity, but development slowed after the Ministry of Electricity switched from BOO terms to unattractive tariffs for wind projects. Only after Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker announced a switch back to BOO did international banks and financial institutions dust off plans to back shelved Egyptian wind projects, including Lekela’s. (CONTINUED - 149 WORDS)