Follow us on Twitter: @GoAfricaNetwork
Siemens, the largest engineering company in Europe, is set to construct gas and wind power plants in Egypt after the German engineering firm was awarded contracts valued at $9 billion for these projects, it emerged on Wednesday.
Described as the biggest single order in its history, the contract is poised to bolster Egypt’s power production, increasing the North African country’s power production capacity by 16.4 gigawatts.
By Staff Writer @ Ventures Africa
These deals are based on announcements of intent authorized at the Egypt Economic Development Conference in March last year. In terms of the newly-signed contract, Egypt will take delivery of Siemens’ three ready-to-use gas-steam power machines with a capacity of 4.8 gigawatts which will start operating in 2017. These will create around 1.000 jobs in the North African country which is emerging from a politically turbulent period which started nearly five years ago.
These jobs will be created by the manufacturing of the rotor blades for the wind plants. The making of these blades will be conducted inside the country. According to Siemens, loans for the order were mainly secured through export credit insurers in Germany and Denmark. Additionally, Siemens is constructing up to 12 wind parks. It is also creating 600 wind turbines with a total capacity of 2 gigawatts at the Suez channel and in the Western Nile region, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
