Egypt has great potentials to increase alternative fuels sources

Egypt has the highest wind energy potentials in the Middle East and North Africa (30 GW or close to the entire current generation capacity) and enjoys direct solar radiation between 2000-3200 kWh/m2/year across its large landmass which is necessary and optimum for securing the Egyptian energy supply, diversifying the Egyptian power mix and preserving the environment while reducing Egypt's share of contribution to the global greenhouse gases emissions, said Lafarge Egypt CEO Hussein Mansi.

"Lafarge Egypt has already implemented many projects over the past three years in order to increase the use of alternative fuels and we aim to achieve an average fuel substitution rate of 25% by the end of 2015," he added in a press release.

As part of its commitment to the Egyptian market and efforts to promote its "Build Egypt 2030" campaign and in line with its global vision to promote and implement the use of alternative and renewable fuels, Lafarge Egypt, in partnership with MEED, will be running a series of morning briefings dedicated to defining opportunities in Egypt's economy from October to December 2015.

The first in the series of three, the Lafarge Egypt Energy Briefing, is committed to the renewable and alternative energy sector and will take place on Monday October 12th and will cover topics including the Energy sector's future outlook, latest developments, power mix and project requirements. This will provide a significant platform to discuss and deliberate upon the key issues faced within Egypt as the country continues to address challenges.

"Already, we have processed more than 260,000 tons of waste and used it as an alternative fuel in our Sokhna plant since 2013, which is an equivalent of 100,000 tons of fossil fuels," he said.

Lafarge Egypt continues to strive for new solutions and aims to promote the use of alternative and renewable to industry stakeholders and across the Egyptian industrial ecosystem by partnering in awareness initiatives with reputable and experienced bodies such as MEED.

The speaking panel will include Richard Thompson the Editorial Director of MEED, Hussein Mansi the Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge Egypt, Dr. Ahmed Badri the Executive Director at the Regional Centre for Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency (RCREEE) and Maged Mahmoud the Head of Projects at the Regional Centre for Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency (RCREEE).

This comes at a critical time as Egypt's current power generation capacity shows a negative reserve margin relative to peak demand which calls for new and versatile solutions. The country needs to increase capacity every year on average by 5.2 GW through 2022. In addition to that, the current power generation mix is highly concentrated on oil and gas (91%, with 8% being provided by hydropower). Egypt's energy intensity is 26,000 BTU per US$ of GDP, which is 4-5 times as high as most European countries; a clear indication of low energy efficiency.