The kick-off meeting for the “Support the Technical and Financial Sustainability of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Sectors” took place in end of June 2018 at the building of our main beneficiary - the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA). The Technical Assistance Team (TAT) and Human Dynamics were warmly welcomed by the executive chairman, Mr Mohammed Mostafa El-Khayat, Mr Ahmed El Beltagui from the Delegation of the European Union to Egypt and a large number of representatives from the NREA.
During the meeting, our key experts presented the main features of our approach for the technical assistance project, which aims to increase the strategic planning and implementation of energy efficiency incentives by the government.
As Egypt continues to rebuild its economy it faces a number of risks. External challenges include regional unrest and a slowdown in exports due to muted global growth. National security however remains a concern. Nevertheless, Egypt’s economy has continued to expand, with the IMF forecasting GDP growth of roughly 4% for 2015 and 4.4% for 2016.
The country has a current estimated shortage of 3,000 MW according to the Ministry of Electricity and renewable Energy (MOERE). The gap between supply and demand will worsen with the expected increase in GDP in the coming years based on faster economic development. This is currently pushing the government to search for immediate solutions, and instead of renewables is allowing some industries to use coal to secure energy supply as well as to engage a policy of building coal fired power stations as well as nuclear power plants.
Under the technical assistance, our team is expected to create the Cairo Energy Efficiency Centre, which is supposed to promote at large the use of renewable energy and attitudal change towards energy saving.
After the kick-off meeting, the team had the opportunity to feel the working atmosphere from inside the NREA building by visiting the laboratories and working spaces. Our team is also expected to support the realignment of NREA as an organisation in change of Renewable Energy.