Engie leads construction of 900MW wind farm in Egypt

French utility major Engie is leading a consortium to develop a 900-megawatt (MW) onshore wind farm near Ras Shokeir on the western coast of the Gulf of Suez in Egypt.

The project is the “largest onshore wind farm worldwide”, surpassing its Assuruá wind complex in Brazil (846MW), the company claimed in a statement.

The consortium will develop the project under a 25-year build-own-operate scheme and has signed a power purchase agreement with the state-run Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company. No financial details were given.

Engie will own a 35 percent stake in the consortium, while Aeolus, an African renewable energy company, will hold a 40 percent stake.

Orascom Construction, listed on both the Egyptian Exchange and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, will own the remaining 25 percent. It will execute all civil and electrical balance-of-plant works and supply selected local components. 

The financial close is expected in the early third quarter of 2026, with the first wind turbines delivered on-site by the end of 2026. 

The project will be commissioned in phases due to its size. The first 300MW is scheduled to come online in December 2027, with full commercial operation of the 900MW expected in mid-2028.

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The consortium has already developed two operational wind farms in Egypt – Red Sea Wind Energy (654MW) and Ras Ghareb (262.5MW) – both delivered ahead of schedule and below the initial budget.

In January Niko Cornelis, Engie’s GCC country ​manager, said that the Middle East “will contribute an important amount of our renewables growth ‍through 2035 ​because there’s an enormous amount of demand”.

The company is participating in ⁠multiple tenders, including in Saudi Arabia, where projects range from 0.5 to 2 gigawatts, compared with European solar tenders that ⁠are much smaller, he said.