On a sun-baked plain 100km south of Egypt's capital, engineers are putting the finishing touches to a groundbreaking solar plant they hope will offer the country a way out of its energy crisis.
The Kuraymat solar thermal power station, which is in a close race with a project in Algeria to claim the title of the first commercial solar plant in the Arab world, features rows of curved mirrors spread over 13 hectares to concentrate the heat of the sun and generate electricity.
The solar array, which a project spokesman says is "99 per cent complete", will generate a maximum of 20 megawatts by channelling the sun's heat to an adjacent gas-fired power station.
That output is small, less than 0.1 per cent of Egypt's peak summer needs, but it is the first in a wave of projects that aim to wean the Middle East's most populous country off its declining fossil fuel reserves.
The turn to nuclear and renewable energies, driven by the same staggering consumption growth and supply constraints experienced in the UAE, has vaulted to near the top of the agenda this autumn after the government was forced to implement the first nationwide power cuts in decades last August.
The Kuraymat plant and two operational wind farms on the east coast will be replicated dozens of times as the country chases a goal of generating 20 per cent of electricity from renewables by 2020, a target that is second only to Morocco as the most ambitious in the region. Abu Dhabi expects to generate 7 per cent from renewables by that date.
Officials will begin accepting bids from contractors for the first major step in the Egyptian plan, a 1,000mw wind farm, by the end of the year.
On Wednesday, the ministry of electricity and energy said it would also proceed with a third major renewable energy project: a 1,500mw combined solar and natural gas plant that is due to be built by October 2013.
More significantly, the government expects to award a construction contract for the country's first nuclear power stations next year, with the plants planned to be operational by 2020.
But every year is precious: unlike in the UAE, Egypt's power supply system is already failing as demand growth of between 6 and 7 per cent a year eclipses growth in generating capacity.
This summer, as hot weather spurred Egyptians to buy a record number of air conditioners, peak power demand rose by more than 13 per cent, officials said.
The energy deficit will continue for the short to medium term, leaving the government with no choice but to import power as it develops nuclear and renewable alternatives as quickly as possible, says Mounir Megahed, who served as vice chairman of Egypt's nuclear power authority until retiring in April this year.
"Our oil resources are very limited … our natural gas resources are more than we have for oil but still very limited … we don't have coal," Mr Megahed says. "This is simply the situation."
In the short-term, continued reliance on fossil fuels will erode Egypt's large natural gas export surplus, he notes, and force it to buy more electricity from neighbouring states.
Burning oil to produce power, which is always costly, has become prohibitively expensive for Egypt since it became a net importer of crude and oil products several years ago, Mr Megahed says.
Alternative options all have downsides as well.
The 10 years it takes to develop a nuclear energy programme is too long to resolve current concerns. Renewable energy remains more costly than nuclear energy and natural gas plants, despite Egypt's ample sunshine and windy conditions on the Red Sea coastline, adding to a growing fiscal burden on the government.
A law now under consideration would encourage renewable energy projects by providing incentives for private investment. It remains essential if renewable energy projects are to take off in Egypt, a report commissioned by the Egyptian German private sector development programme found this year.
The attractiveness of future solar projects will depend heavily on regulations enacted by the government, says Alexander Jacobsen, a spokesman for Solar Millennium, the German solar thermal company that is building the Kuraymat plant through a subsidiary.
"It always depends on the regulatory conditions," Mr Jacobsen says. "I don't know if Egypt is preparing another tender but if there would be another process we would look at the conditions and then decide."
The ultimate solution to the country's energy crisis, forcing a slowdown in consumption growth by increasing power prices, has been considered for years and remains as politically tricky in Egypt as it does across the rest of the region. The country's electricity rates for large industrial users increased three times since 1993 but remained fixed for residents and small businesses.
"There is a lot of waste in energy because according to some opinions it is too cheap," Mr Megahed says. "They are already changing the tariffs but this is being done quite slowly … we have to take care of the poor people because if you increase the price too much it would kill them."
The cost of government subsidies to the power industry in the 2009 fiscal year totalled 4.3 billion Egyptian pounds (Dh2.74bn), up 59 per cent in four years, the government-owned Electricity Holding Company reported.
Egyptian consumers pay 5 piastres (3.2 fils) a kilowatt-hour (kwh) for their first 50kwh of monthly consumption.
That is just 64 per cent of the rate in Abu Dhabi, which has some of the lowest power prices in the world.
Egypt's finance minister, Youssef Boutros Ghali, announced a year ago that the government would fully eliminate subsidies for electricity, petrol and diesel within five years. But political analysts say the unpopular plan is unlikely to advance before presidential elections are held next September.
Mohamed Awad, the head of the Electricity Holding Company, told the local press this summer that reduced consumption was the only solution to the country's power woes.
"There are renewable sources but, at the same time, there are unacceptable levels of consumption," Mr Awad told Al Masry Al Youm, an independent daily newspaper, after the power cuts sparked public outcry.
"We're trying to set another plan for next year, though we hope there will be no such heat waves and that people will rationalise their consumption."
business@thenational.ae
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
HAJJAN
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The biog
Hobby: Playing piano and drawing patterns
Best book: Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
Food of choice: Sushi
Favourite colour: Orange
MATCH INFO
Watford 2 (Sarr 50', Deeney 54' pen)
Manchester United 0
The biog
Favourite hobby: I love to sing but I don’t get to sing as much nowadays sadly.
Favourite book: Anything by Sidney Sheldon.
Favourite movie: The Exorcist 2. It is a big thing in our family to sit around together and watch horror movies, I love watching them.
Favourite holiday destination: The favourite place I have been to is Florence, it is a beautiful city. My dream though has always been to visit Cyprus, I really want to go there.
Results
4pm: Maiden (Dirt) Dh165,000 1,600m
Winner: Moshaher, Pat Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer).
4.35pm: Handicap (D) Dh165,000 2,200m
Winner: Heraldic, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
5.10pm: Maiden (Turf) Dh165,000 1,600m
Winner: Rua Augusta, Harry Bentley, Ahmad bin Harmash.
5.45pm: Handicap (D) Dh190,000 1,200m
Winner: Private’s Cove, Mickael Barzalona, Sandeep Jadhav.
6.20pm: Handicap (T) Dh190,000 1,600m
Winner: Azmaam, Jim Crowley, Musabah Al Muhairi.
6.55pm: Handicap (D) Dh190,000 1,400m
Winner: Bochart, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
7.30pm: Handicap (T) Dh190,000 2,000m
Winner: Rio Tigre, Mickael Barzalona, Sandeep Jadhav.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Grubtech
Founders: Mohamed Al Fayed and Mohammed Hammedi
Launched: October 2019
Employees: 50
Financing stage: Seed round (raised $2 million)
Dubai World Cup factbox
Most wins by a trainer: Godolphin’s Saeed bin Suroor(9)
Most wins by a jockey: Jerry Bailey(4)
Most wins by an owner: Godolphin(9)
Most wins by a horse: Godolphin’s Thunder Snow(2)
NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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The five pillars of Islam
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Company%C2%A0profile
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Key products and UAE prices
iPhone XS
With a 5.8-inch screen, it will be an advance version of the iPhone X. It will be dual sim and comes with better battery life, a faster processor and better camera. A new gold colour will be available.
Price: Dh4,229
iPhone XS Max
It is expected to be a grander version of the iPhone X with a 6.5-inch screen; an inch bigger than the screen of the iPhone 8 Plus.
Price: Dh4,649
iPhone XR
A low-cost version of the iPhone X with a 6.1-inch screen, it is expected to attract mass attention. According to industry experts, it is likely to have aluminium edges instead of stainless steel.
Price: Dh3,179
Apple Watch Series 4
More comprehensive health device with edge-to-edge displays that are more than 30 per cent bigger than displays on current models.
Scorecard
Scotland 220
K Coetzer 95, J Siddique 3-49, R Mustafa 3-35
UAE 224-3 in 43,5 overs
C Suri 67, B Hameed 63 not out
Engine: 80 kWh four-wheel-drive
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 402bhp
Torque: 760Nm
Price: From Dh280,000