Egypt

Italian energy company Eni is partnering with local companies in Algeria and Egypt to explore the possibility of producing green and blue hydrogen in the North African countries. The United Arab Emirates is also collaborating with Japanese partners to develop the country’s hydrogen sector, while in New York, hydrogen has arrived in Long Island.

German developer Juwi plans to have a 36 MW off-grid solar plant and 7.5 MW of battery storage operational at the Sukari mine during the second quarter of next year.

The $18bn worth of sustainable finance instruments floated in the nation last year marked a retreat from previous highs but, with most of the bonds issued from July onwards, the recovery is under way, according to the IFC, which is anticipating a more-than-$100 billion sector in emerging markets over the next three years.

The oft-heard industry call for more supportive policy for renewables, this time in Africa, has prompted the European Commission to pledge to work with its continental counterpart on improving the clean energy regulatory environment.

Saudi power company ACWA Power today revealed it has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company and said development was on track for generation to start before October next year.

A British-Egyptian research group has tested the use of hydrogels beads for PV module cooling. The micro-sized particles were saturated with aluminium oxide (Al2O3) water-based nanofluids and placed below the simulated PV panels. The experiment showed, according to the scientists, that the hydrogels beads were able to significantly reduce the temperature by between 17.9 and 16.3 degrees Celsius.

The $156.4 million Kom Ombo photovoltaic solar power plant is being developed by Saudi energy giant ACWA Power.

An overview of the state of solar across the continent by trade body the Africa Solar Industry Association has highlighted a patchy policy landscape where clean power ambitions are often not followed through.

India’s Sterling and Wilson – which has a global solar engineering, procurement and construction portfolio of more than 10.6 GWp – says that its latest contract in Egypt is for one of the country’s largest PV projects.

A new, nature-inspired algorithm has been applied by scientists in Egypt and Saudi Arabia to optimize the production of green hydrogen via solar and wind power generation. The proposed energy system consists of PV and wind power generation, a water electrolyzer, a tank of hydrogen gas, a fuel cell, and an inverter that brings the generated electricity to final consumers.