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Egypt King of the Sun

The Egyptian king RA was the sun god and king of gods. Egypt had a total of 2,000 gods but RA was a creator god responsible for the ‘birth of the sun’. RA had a chariot which he used to cross the sky while at night he used the Moon to provide light.

Given the climate of Egypt its hardly surprising that the Sun played such a prominent role in this ancient civilisation and now in the modern world.  Egypt  has more than 300 sunny days a year and most of the country is either desert or semi desert so levels of insolation are very high. The existence of the river Nile makes life possible and the Sun god has finally ensured that Egypt has unlimited energy.

Solar Insolation Map – Egypt

Temperatures peak around 50 degrees in July. There are short autumns and springs of no more than 2 months with January and December as the coldest and wettest(and cloudiest) time of the year but there are still plenty of sunny days and the temperature rarely falls below 20 except in the desert where there are massive diurnal changes of temperature.

Its therefore not surprising that solar and its application has a high profile and Egypt is building the largest solar farm in the world, so RA has finally been recognised as the most powerful god.

The Benban park also known as the Belban Photovoltaic Power station, is located near the Aswan Dam on the Nile with an initial 1,650 mW on 37 km2 site. The solar insolation is 2,300 kw/yr/m2. Most of Egypt is desert with high levels of insolation but for grid connected systems its essential to be near the high transmission lines.

Benban Solar Farm – Nile Valley

It has cost $4 billion to build with help from multilateral organisations and German technical support. Egypt is aiming to secure 36% of its electrical power from solar by 2036. All the emphasis is on massive grid style projects but there is also potential for smaller solar containers in the industrial areas around Cairo, Suez and Port Said. Solar could even be used in the operation of the Suez Canal and certainly the tourist areas of Hurghada on the Red Sea and in the south Sinai. Same applies on the Sinai road to Gaza including the town of El Arish could be converted entirely to solar using minigrid systems and the power shared with Gaza and Jordan.

Other urban areas and villages including oases in the western desert away from the Nile Valley would benefit from solar include the coastal Red Sea towns. The Mediterranean resorts west of Alexandria towards could be 100% solar.

The first power generators originate in 1893 with most of the power used for streetlighting and until 1962 was run by private companies. In that year the system was nationalized. The industry has now been decentralized into 13 companies with a view to bringing in private capital. Most power generation is from gas and although Egypt is a big gas producer most has to be imported and it’s a strain on the balance of payments.

There are many outages particularly in the hottest times of the year because of demand for aircon. Also the population is growing more rapidly than the installed power capacity. There are 1 million more Egyptians every six months.

Currently there is 27,400 mW of installed capacity that covers 99% of the population but unlike other Arab countries Egypt has to import oil and gas but that situation is changing with big reserves of natural gas discovered in the eastern Mediterranean and shale gas in the Western Deserts. BP signed an agreement in 2015 to develop the offshore deposit of gas in the eastern Mediterranean. Egypt also participates in a power pool which includes Jordan, Libya and the north African countries. They also hope to import power from Saudi Arabia.

Egypt plans to substantially increase its contribution from renewables. 12% comes from hydro mostly the Aswan dam. The Aswan power station could produce more but lower water levels because of climate change has reduced output. Wind also has lots of potential in Egypt and its expected to account for 12% of installed power. The balance of renewable energy will be 8% from solar including CSP.

The emphasis now is scaling capacity with support from the International Finance Corporation and European Development Bank. The energy ministry is now called the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy. The  Nubian Sun Feed-in-Tariff Financing Program with $653 million from the IFC is offering an attractive feed in tariff of $14.3 US cents per kWhr to encourage renewable investment. Offgrid installation could include hybrid schemes that feed surplus to the grid, ‘scaling capacity’ as supported by IFC and the Egyptian electricity ministry.

An offgrid service can be offered to Egyptian customers. Such customers include tourist resorts on the Mediterranean and the Sinai as well as hotels in Giza, factories in Suez, hospitals in El Arish, tourist sites in Luxor, diving centres on the Red Sea, electricity to desert oases and mini grids in the Delta.

                                      Egyptian Grid including grid connection to Jordan and Palestine

Given its needs, location and resources solar will become the primary source of energy in Egypt.

BIBLIO

Cia World Factbook

Energy Egypt

Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy

Fannack Chronicle – Articles on Middle east

Solar Aid – solar energy Egypt

Benban – Solar Park – IFC and World Bank

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