You get up within the small hours, the air is thick, and the fan has stopped. Or you might be midway by means of a web based class, a gathering, or a examine session, and the display goes black. That was the soundtrack of final summer season for a lot of houses throughout Egypt, as scheduled energy cuts moved from hearsay to routine.
The sample had a trigger. In the summertime of 2024, and once more in 2025, a fierce heatwave hit Egypt, placing a toll on electrical energy. The federal government in June 2024 resorted to three-hour energy cuts whereas it scrambled for further gas. That is referred to as “load-shedding”, a scheduled switch-off of electrical energy to save lots of gas.
To plug the hole of gas scarcity, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly acknowledged in June 2024 that Egypt wanted USD 1.18 billion value of gas (EGP 56.6 billion). Officers stated the cuts would cease in July 2024 as soon as further gasoline shipments arrived. The message was easy: when gasoline is tight, lights go off or the gas invoice jumps.
Why photo voltaic is the sensible reply
Egypt nonetheless makes most of its electrical energy from pure gasoline. When native gasoline falls quick, the nation buys Liquefied Pure Fuel (LNG) from overseas. Egypt is negotiating LNG provides with Qatar, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia, and has signed offers with Shell and Complete Energies for cargoes in early 2025. In 2025, the U.S. Vitality Info Administration (EIA) reported that Egypt is shopping for extra LNG and chartering three further FSRUs (floating terminals that flip LNG again into gasoline) to cowl demand. The Cupboard additionally stated Egypt would import LNG from July 2025 to June 2026 to get by means of the subsequent summer season. These steps preserve the grid operating, however they’re costly in contrast with constructing extra native photo voltaic.
The strategic reply is to lift the share of unpolluted energy. In 2023, the federal government revealed its plans for renewables to provide 42 p.c of Egypt’s electrical energy by 2030. In the present day, renewables provide about 11.5 p.c of Egypt’s electrical energy, as per the most recent authorities determine reiterated publicly at COP27 in late 2024, that means the nation would want to roughly quadruple the share of unpolluted energy within the combine by 2030 to satisfy its aim.
In late 2024, Madbouly referred to as for international finance to improve the grid. Hitting the 42 p.c goal means including huge photo voltaic and wind crops and in addition connecting smaller programs on rooftops, faculties, and companies.
By Could 2025, Egypt had about 7.7 gigawatts (GW) of renewables (photo voltaic, wind, and hydro mixed). A yr earlier, the nation had roughly 7.4 GW; 4.6 GW of wind and photo voltaic, plus 2.8 GW of hydropower. In plain phrases: complete clear capability grew year-on-year, even after the massive wave of photo voltaic building at Benban earlier within the decade. The Benban Photo voltaic Park close to Aswan stays the anchor of Egypt’s photo 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 photo voltaic plant with Scatec, the most important photo 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 value USD 1 billion (EGP 48 billion).
Smaller programs matter as nicely. Properties, outlets, and campuses can join beneath internet metering, which implies you employ your solar energy first and ship any further to the grid for credit in your invoice. They’re best for customers with important daytime consumption and in tariff bands the place daytime charges are larger. The regulator’s present tariff desk, in power since 1 September 2024, exhibits what you pay per kilowatt-hour on every band, so heavy daytime customers (workshops, clinics, faculties) can see their possible payback extra clearly.
Why Egypt’s solar provides photo voltaic an edge
Egypt can be a naturally sunny place to tune extra to this pure useful resource. Nationwide and World Financial institution-backed instruments present robust photo voltaic sources: round 3,000 hours of sunshine a yr in lots of areas, and excessive photo voltaic radiation from the Nile Valley to Higher Egypt. Extra solar hours and stronger radiation imply every panel can generate extra electrical energy.
But, there’s nonetheless a bottleneck to unravel: the grid. Consider the grid because the “roads and bridges” of electrical energy: the massive pylons (high-voltage traces) and substations that carry energy from the place it’s made (Benban in Higher Egypt, wind within the Gulf of Suez) to the place it’s used (Cairo, the Delta, industrial zones). At the moment, these “roads” are busy, and a few stretches are too slender for the additional site visitors from new photo voltaic and wind crops. That’s the reason even with a lot of sunshine and prepared buyers, initiatives will be delayed till there’s area on the traces.
First, lower than 12 p.c of Egypt’s practically 60 GW of put in capability was renewable as of mid-2024, that means most energy nonetheless got here from gasoline and older crops. Second, the nationwide renewables complete did rise 0.3 GW year-on-year, from mid-2024 Mid 2025; nevertheless, to succeed in the specified 42 p.c by 2030, much more new initiatives have to be plugged in faster than the infrastructure can presently cater.
Officers say they’re fast-tracking clean-energy connections by means of the Underneath Egypt’s Nexus for Water, Meals and Vitality (NWFE) platform so precedence initiatives can feed energy into the community earlier than peak summer season demand.
To make that potential, the European Financial institution for Reconstruction and Improvement’s (EBRD) is in parallel financing a grid-reinforcement mission. A brand new 500 kV substation in Cairo and about 200 km of latest 500 kV traces, which can transfer photo voltaic from Higher Egypt, the place it’s sunny, and wind from the coastal space into areas of main masses.
The financial institution’s paperwork describe the substation as “essential for the soundness of the community” and say the improve is immediately linked to closing the Shoubra El-Kheima gasoline plant with out risking provide. In easy phrases; extra high-voltage traces along with larger substations end in extra room for photo voltaic and wind to circulate, fewer bottlenecks, and fewer want for emergency gas in scorching months. With out these wires and substations, new photo voltaic fields can’t ship their energy to houses or outlets, even when the panels are already within the desert.
Put merely, final yr’s blackouts confirmed the price of counting on gasoline alone. This yr’s plan is to purchase time with imported gas whereas including extra photo voltaic and wind, massive and small, and strengthening the grid that carries them.
Reaching the deliberate 42 p.c by 2030 now will depend on holding that construct on schedule and plugging every mission right into a grid that’s prepared for it.
Elevate your perspective with NextTech Information, the place innovation meets perception.
Uncover the most recent breakthroughs, get unique updates, and join with a worldwide community of future-focused thinkers.
Unlock tomorrow’s traits at present: learn extra, subscribe to our publication, and grow to be a part of the NextTech neighborhood at NextTech-news.com
