WASHINGTON, February 14, 2012 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved today a loan in the amount of USD240 million to Egypt for additional financing of the Giza North Power Project. It is part of a broader program which aims to help the country meet the growing electricity demand and ensure reliable, efficient, and sustainable power supply to Egypt which is undergoing political and economic reform. The project is the most effective way to quickly strengthen the ability of the power sector to cover the gap in electricity supply and serve more than five million households.
Over the last several years the World Bank has become an important development partner in Egypt’s energy sector through financing projects in renewable and natural gas-based conventional technologies. In 2007, the Board approved the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-financed solar-thermal El-Kureimat power project – recently fully commissioned -- which included the first concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Egypt and one of the first integrated solar-thermal power projects in the world. In 2010, the Board approved the Clean Technology Fund and IBRD-financed Wind Power Development Project to support the development of power transmission infrastructure to connect privately-financed wind power plants in the Gulf of Suez.
