Ideas for important national projects – Amr Hashim Rabie

Since mid-July 2023, Egypt has been going through a difficult period with continuous power outages in households, production and administrative work institutions. One of the most important reasons that is said to justify this measure is the reduction in the production of the Zohr oil field from 3 million cubic feet per day to 1.9 million cubic feet. Of course, another reason is added to this reason, which is the Gaza war a few months later in July 2023 and the Israeli aggression against Gaza on October 8, 2023. Despite the existence of the agreement, Israel temporarily stopped supplying gas to Egypt on the grounds that Egypt’s imported gas is intended to be liquefied in Idku and Damietta and then exported to European countries. The imported gas comes from the Tamar oil field, located in the waters of the Mediterranean near Ashdod. The gas field exports 15% of its production abroad, including 1 billion cubic feet per day to Egypt, and this export volume has recently increased with the abundance of oil field production and the increase in the demand for gas in European countries due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Important among them is the significant decline in Egypt’s natural gas production, which has led to the inability to generate electricity. It is worth noting that there are 80 power stations in Egypt, of which 25 (31%) use a combination of natural gas and diesel, 19 (25%) use a combination of natural gas and diesel, 11 use only natural gas, 12 power stations use a combination of natural gas and diesel, and 15% use natural gas and diesel. There are also 6 plants that use hydropower, 1 uses solar energy, 2 use solar energy, 3 use wind energy, and 1 uses diesel energy, with its headquarters in El-Waleediya, Assiut. The map also adds that 55% of the power stations are combined cycle (i.e. they run on gas plus diesel or gas plus diesel), 29% are steam stations, 7% are pure gas stations, 5% of the stations run on renewable energy through solar and wind energy, and 5% of the stations use only solar energy.
The map shows that natural gas is essential for electricity generation in Egypt, both on its own and in partnership with other energy sources. Therefore, as part of the work to identify the country’s top national projects, it is proposed that renewable energy generation be included in the country’s national project map in the coming months. Egypt has constant sunshine, especially in the south, where this energy is concentrated throughout the year. This energy source is not new to Egypt, since it knows how to use solar energy to generate electricity, as the previous statistics have shown, and the point here is that we want to intensify the work of generating electricity from this inexhaustible energy source. In fact, no one will argue about the importance of this important step, which is no less important than the construction of the road and transportation network, which is largely completed today, and indeed no less important than the reconstruction of the new capital and the northern coast. , and no less important than the recycling and purification of agricultural, domestic wastewater and seawater treatment.
Investing in solar power generation becomes crucial given that the gas shortage seems set to continue for some time, which has severely affected not only households but also factories due to power outages, causing many factories to stop working, which has seriously affected attracting local and foreign investment, in addition to having a direct impact on the tourism industry as well as the agricultural sector, as fertilizer production companies have stopped producing fertilizers?
Solar power projects do require serious and urgent thinking as they may be a suitable outlet for power generation, although they are not cheap, but their cost must be considered, and they are a one-time cost, compared to always buying petrol and diesel from abroad.