Egypt’s Empower to invest $250 million in 32 power plants
Egypt’s Empower for New and Renewable Energy plans to increase its investments in to $250 million within 2030, through establishing 32 waste-to-energy plants that will process 1.6 million tonnes of waste, said chairman on Tuesday .
Empower plans to establish independent power producers (IPP) with a capacity of 46 megawatt (MW) to directly provide consumers with electricity, Hatem El-Gamal added in an interview with Mubasher.
The company currently owns five power plants that use methane gas generated from animal manures and wastewater with total investments of 420 million pounds, he noted.
In the Egyptian governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh, a new wastewater-to-power plant is set to be inaugurated in September with investments of 84 million pounds to produce about 1 megawatt (MW).
Previously, Empower inaugurated its first wastewater-to-energy plant in Kafr El-Sheikh with a capacity of 18 MW per day and the plant has been connected to the national electricity grid.
Moreover, the renewable energy firm also plans to set up a new waste-to-energy plant in El-Nubaria in Beheira in November and signed a deal with Milky’s Farm to generate energy using methane gas produced from manure.
With investments of 96 million pounds, the to-be-established plant in El-Nubaria will have a capacity of 1 MW.
In addition, Empower is currently in talks with Banque du Caire to obtain a loan worth EGP 70 million to finance 70 percent of the costs of the plant, while the remaining 30 percent will be self-financed from the company’s own resources.
The renewable energy firm also aims to directly sell electricity generated from waste to 36 farms in the coming period, El-Gamal added, noting that the company entered into an agreement to sell 800 kilowatts (KW) of electricity to a farm.
El-Gamal revealed that the company is in talks with Bank of Alexandria and Banque Misr to finance the establishment of a new power plant using food waste and wastewater in El-Salheya city with a total capacity of 1 MW and up to 95 million pounds in investment.
At the end of 2020, the new plant is expected to start electricity production using 250,000 tonnes of waste.
El-Gamal noted that bureaucracy is one of the major challenges facing the waste-to-energy industry in the current period, calling for streamlining procedures to obtain the required licences for operation.
