Lekela Power to develop 250MW wind energy project in Egypt for $350m

Pan-African renewable power generation company Lekela Power has signed a Mou with Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company for establishing a 250MW wind power station in Egypt’s Gulf of Suez area.

The plant will be set up with an investment of $350m.

It will be Lekela’s third power project in Egypt followed by two power stations signed earlier this year including one 50MW solar power station and one 50MW wind power station.

The new plant expects to use Egypt’s exclusive wind resources. It will be managed with a build, own and operate (BOO) framework.

Lekela is jointly owned by Ireland’s Mainstream Renewable Power and UK’s Actis Fund which was established last February.

Lekela Power chief executive officer Chris Antonopoulos said: "We are delighted to have agreed heads of terms for our third project in Egypt and we look forward to continuing to provide clean, safe, and cost competitive energy to the Egyptian people through our wind and solar projects."

The company has over 1,100MW of wind and solar projects across South Africa, Egypt and Ghana.

Last June, the South African Government, under its new renewable energy procurement programme awarded a contract to Mainstream for constructing two wind farms. Mainstream transferred the contract to its joint venture Lekela Power to carry out the project.

The projects have a combined generation capacity of 250MW and are expected to commence construction next year.

Currently, Lekela already has an additional 360MW of wind energy projects under construction in South Africa.