This is one of the very significant reasons why North African countries are leading the rest of the continent in wind power projects. 95 % of the total installed wind power in Africa can be found in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. In 2009, 169 MW of wind power was added on the continent, all of it in Egypt and Morocco.

In addition, most of the North African countries are facing strong growth in population and, related to this, in the economy. Wind and other renewable energy technologies offer excellent opportunities to harvest an abundance of clean energy and to provide enough energy for the population and businesses, to satisfy all its needs and to lift the living standards to the levels of the industrialized countries, however, without harming the environment.

Further interesting prospects for wind energy in the region are emerging from discussions how the interconnection around the Mediterranean Sea, between North Africa and Europe, can be extended and one day used to enhance a 100 % renewable energy supply on both sides of the sea. Together with wind, the abundance of solar energy in North Africa can become a backbone of the energy system in the whole region.

Ambitious Renewable Energy targets in the region:

• Egypt has set a renewable energy target of 20 % of electricity generation by 2020. Wind energy is expected to contribute 12 % of this renewable energy; this translates into more than 7200 MW of grid-connected wind farms.

Egypt has large deserts and abundant land mass, the majority of which is only scarcely populated. These areas are well suited to host renewable energy projects to increase the country’s share of renewable energy as well as to export excess energy to Europe and the region. Large areas with high wind potential are already earmarked on the west of the Gulf of Suez, as well as the eastern and western deserts of the Nile River banks.

• Morocco has set its renewable energy target at 20 % of electricity generation by 2012.
  

  Morocco has an excellent wind potential mainly in the North & in the South with an annual average between 7 m/s & 8.5 m/s in the South & between 8 m/s & 11 m/s in the North, especially in the Atlantic coastal regions. Since Morocco is the only North African country without oil the wind energy generated will primarily used to produce electricity and connect it to the grid as well as exporting the energy to Europe. The other use is to produce drinking water by desalination.

Large Scale projects in the region:

• DESERTEC (Sahara Desert):
  The DESERTEC concept was developed by the Club of Rome and by the TREC Initiative (Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation). The DESERTEC concept is designed to bring deserts and existing technology into service to improve global security of energy, water and the climate. To this end we propose Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EU-MENA) begin to cooperate in the production of electricity and desalinated water using concentrating solar thermal power and wind turbines in the MENA deserts. These technologies can meet the growing demands for power production and seawater desalination in the MENA region, and produce clean electrical power that can be transmitted via High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines with relatively little transmission loss to Europe (10-15%).
  Overall calculated investments needs are approximately 400 Billion € by 2050. For more information please visit www.desertec.org
• SAHARA WIND PROJECT:
  Benefiting from the exceptional North Atlantic Sahara Trade Wind resource blowing from Morocco through Mauritania, which has the potential to cover close to half of the European electricity needs, the Sahara Wind Project aims at delivering over 5 GW of wind generated electricity to supply Euro-Mediterranean markets via a High voltage Direct Current transmission line. Under grant funding from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, wind measurements and energy intensive synergetic processes are currently being tested at Morocco and Mauritania’s Universities in partnership with local industries. The technical terms of references for assessing the optimal transfer of the Sahara Wind farm network on the basis of a 5 GW HVDC line - have already been established with ONE, the Moroccan public electric utility operating the local grid infrastructures. Complementary to Morocco’s integrated Wind Energy Program launched in 2010, the Sahara Wind Project presents a market based, locally integrated economic development model that is of strategic importance to the region. For more information please visit www.saharawind.com

Zaafarana Wind Farm (Egypt):

On the western shore of the red sea, 220 km from the city of Cairo, the Zaafarana wind farm is Egypt’s largest wind energy generating facility. With over 430 Megawatt of installed capacity, some of which in operation for the last 10 years, the Zaafarana wind farm is currently the largest on the African continent. Built with financial support from Denmark, Germany and Spain, the Zaafarana wind farm is located on a site averaging a yearly wind speed of 8.5 m/s. Altogether, the wind park will be feeding an anticipated 300 GWh per annum into Egypt’s national grid, while saving more than 180,000 tons of CO2 emissions. This makes it one of the world’s most productive.  

• Kuraymat Solar Combined Cycle Power Plant (Egypt):

  El Kureimat, 90km outside of Cairo, is a thermal power plant site feeding gas into its heat recovery steam generators (HSRG). In addition to these thermal power plants , a solar island CCGT plant has been built and completed in October, 2010. Planned by The New and Renewable Energy Authority in 2007 , the NREA awarded Fichtner Consulting Engineers for the construction supervision and Orascom Construction Industries for the EPC contract. This plant uses solar thermal heat collectors in order to heat water and provide steam for the turbines of the El Kureimat combined cycle power plant. The KureimatSolar Thermal Hybrid Plant consists of Solar Collector Arrays (SCAs), 2 gas turbines (41.5 MW), 2 Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG) and 1 steam turbine (68). It has a total capacity of 150MW, whereas 30 MW are generated by the solar site. The project has been funded through the World Bank’s global environment facility, the Japan Bank for International Co-operation and the National Bank of Egypt. The total cost for the project accounts for approximately 327,57 million USD.

• Wind Farm near Tangiers (Morocco):
  Situated in Melloussa, roughly 34 kilometers outside of Tangiers, the new wind farm runs 42 km in length, boasts 165 wind turbines, and a production capacity of 140 megawatts. It joins an already existing smaller wind farm with a 54 MW capacity. The wind farm is partly funded by the European Investment Bank (80 million Euros) while other contributions came from the official Credit Institute of Spain (100 million Euros), Germany’s Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (50 million Euros) and the Moroccan national Office of Potable Water (20 million Euros). The Energy produced in the wind farm in Tangier will save 126,000 metric tons of oil per year and will significantly reduce CO2 emissions. This wind farm which was recently inaugurated is considered to be the largest wind farm in Africa.
• Wind Farm in Gulf of Suez:                                                                                                                                                            The Wind Farm in Gulf of El Zayt project intends to set up a 200 MW wind farm in Gulf of El Zayt on the West bank of the Gulf of Suez. It is funded by the EU, European Commission, European Central Bank and KfW.