Lekela, renewable power generation company, has celebrated the groundbreaking on the 250MW West Bakr Wind project in Egypt
This marks the start of construction for the project. To celebrate, an event was held at Cairo's new administrative capital and attended by Lekela stakeholders and partners, including the minister of electricity and renewable energy, the minister of environment and the minister of planning.
Additionally, senior government executives from the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) and the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) attended.
Located 30km north-west of Ras Ghareb, West Bakr Wind is part of the government?s ?build, own, operate? (BOO) scheme. It will provide an additional 250MW of clean energy to the grid, increasing Egypt?s wind energy capacity as the country strives to meet its target of generating 20 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2022.
The project will prevent more than 550,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
Additionally, Lekela inaugurates its flagship Parc Eolien Taiba N?Diaye (PETN) project in Senegal, which provides the first-ever utility-scale wind power in West Africa.
The West Bakr Wind and PETN are deploying 20-year community investment plans in their local areas. These are designed to address pressing socio-economic development challenges and ensure sustained improvements for communities, even after the end of wind farm operations in the future.
At West Bakr Wind, for example, migrating birds will be protected through the development of a ?shut down on demand? programme. At PETN, two new marketplaces have been constructed and a new IT centre has been built for local schoolchildren. The plan of socio-economic investments at PETN is estimated to contribute up to US$20mn over the lifetime of the wind farm.
