Previously, only 9 CDM projects (3 wind projects and 6 other project types) had been registered in Egypt. ECF, managed by Natixis Environnement & Infrastructures, is therefore a pioneer in this country which has benefited relatively little from the Clean Development Mechanism up to now.
The wind farm is located 200 km southeast of Cairo, in the Gulf of Suez. This area is particularly well-suited for the establishment of such a park, due to the high prevailing wind speed and the distance from inhabited areas. With an installed capacity of 85MW, the project is already operational and provides more than 320,000 MWh of electricity per year to the Egyptian grid. This is equivalent to the annual electricity demand of a city of more than 200,000 inhabitants, according to World Bank statistics[1].
ECF and NREA's investment in this project will benefit the environment since it reduces local pollution caused by emissions from fossil fuel-based power plants which provide most of the electricity to the Egyptian grid. In addition, the project contributes to combatting climate change by reducing emissions by more than 170,000 tones of CO2 each year.
This project is the 25th to be registered within ECF’s portfolio, which is diversified technologically as well as geographically. With this new registration, the registration rate of the ECF portfolio has increased to over 92%, well above the UNFCCC average.
“In addition to reducing CO2 emissions, this project in Zafarana demonstrates once again the beneficial impact that project mechanisms can have on developing countries. The mobilization of various economic actors around this project is proof of its success, since only financially and technically viable operations are able to attract such stakeholders,” said Laurent Piermont, Chairman of ECF.
European Carbon Fund is a SICAV-SIF managed by Natixis Environnement & Infrastructures.
[1] According to World Bank Data for the year 2009