Egypt plans to award deals next year to build 21 water desalination plants in the first $3 billion phase of a program that will draw on renewable energy, the CEO of the country's sovereign fund said on Thursday.
Egypt, which recently hosted the COP27 U.N. climate talks and is trying to boost investment in renewables, also aims to start production on its green hydrogen projects in 2025-2026, Ayman Soliman told the Reuters NEXT conference.
The government's water desalination program aims to generate the production of 3.3 million cubic meters of desalinated water daily in the first phase, and eventually reach 8.8 million cubic meters daily.
There had been expressions of interest from more than 200 developers from at least 35 countries for the first phase, Soliman said.
For green hydrogen, the government converted nine out of 15 memoranda of understanding (MoU) for projects concentrated in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE) into framework agreements during the climate talks in Sharm el-Shiekh last month.
At least another three or four MoUs were close to being converted, and more MoUs were planned, Soliman said.
"There are actually more that are going to flock in and join that group, and this is not a competition. We are creating a pipeline or a blueprint for that process, aiming to start production in 2025-26 and all the developers are working backward from there," Soliman said.
The Sovereign Fund was set up in 2018 with a goal of attracting private investment in state-owned assets through partnerships and co-investments.
