Renewable

February 24 (Renewables Now) - Africa-focused renewables company Lekela has turned the first sod to celebrate the start of construction of the 250-MW West Bakr wind farm project in Egypt’s side of the Gulf of Suez.

Located 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) north-west of the town of Ras el Ghareb, the wind farm will use 96 units of Siemens Gamesa turbines and operate under a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC).

The project will be installed under the Egyptian government’s build-own-operate (BOO) programme.

While announcing the milestone in Egypt on Monday, Lekela stated that the first phase of its wind project in Senegal -- the 158.7-MW Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye (PETN) -- is producing electricity.

The company said that 16 of 46 Vestas turbines that will make up the wind farm are now generating up to 50 MW. The installation of the remaining capacity will be completed later in 2020.

PETN is the first utility-scale wind farm in West Africa. Once fully operational, the project's 158.7 MW will raise Senegal’s generation capacity by 15% and supply power to over two million people.