Egypt is turning its attention to wind power as the next frontier in its clean energy localization push, following earlier steps in solar panel and battery manufacturing at home. Electricity Minister Mahmoud Esmat has recently met with executives from China’s Sany Group to explore building Egypt’s first wind turbine factory. While details remain limited, the message is clear: wind turbine manufacturing is now on the table.

Why it matters: Wind localization sits a tier above solar in terms of industrial complexity. While solar panels can be assembled on relatively compact production lines, wind turbines are a different story: their scale demands vast factory space, heavy-duty engineering, and precision manufacturing across blades, towers, and nacelles. If Sany Group proceeds with the plan, it would rank among Egypt’s most ambitious industrial undertakings.

“There’s a lot more complexity to get this organized in Egypt,” CEO of Ras Ghareb Wind Energy and Red Sea Wind Energy Hans Bruins tells EnterpriseAM. With over eight years in Egypt and three utility-scale wind farms — including a 900 MW project set to break ground in April — Bruins has seen firsthand what meaningful localization entails.

A wind turbine crash course

A wind turbine is a layered machine. The tower is a hollow steel structure — heavy, bulky, and costly to transport — which is why it is typically localized first. Then come the blades — vast, composite structures made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, aerodynamically precise, and highly sensitive to damage during transport. At the top sits the nacelle, which houses the generator, gearbox, power electronics, cooling systems, and control software — the turbine’s mechanical and digital core.

That’s why wind localization moves in stages: Towers first, blades next, nacelle assembly after. Full generator and gearbox manufacturing only makes sense once volumes and tariff structures justify the investment.

The easy part

Some components make sense to localize — especially the big, bulky ones. “With towers, you’re basically transporting a lot of air — it’s just a hollow steel tower,” Bruins said, confirming that local components have already featured in his projects. In the first project, developed with Siemens Gamesa, parts of the towers were sourced from local steel manufacturers. In the second, 35 out of 104 towers were produced by NSF to Goldwind specifications.

Blades are more technically demanding, but the economic case for localization is strong. “From a handling perspective […] the blades are the most critical ones because they can be easily damaged during transport,” Bruins noted. At around 100 meters long, they carry high logistical costs and significant risk.

The hard part

The most difficult step is manufacturing the turbine’s core: the generator, gearbox, and control systems — the most complex and capital-intensive elements. Modern 10 MW turbines can power an entire village, and as Bruins puts it, “that’s the heart of the machine.”

For now, local assembly is the likely starting point. “You first start with assembling components, and once you’re good at that, then you can start to manufacture them locally,” Bruins said, drawing a parallel to the automotive industry.

How can we ensure a solid pipeline of GWs?

Localization only works if there’s a viable pipeline and a tariff structure that makes it bankable. “It all depends on what is going to happen with the tariffs,” Bruins said. Egypt has recently shifted from bilateral power purchase agreements to competitive tenders, adding time and risk. A single tender could take almost two years from pre-qualification to award.

Tenders also compress prices — sometimes to unsustainable levels. Referencing Saudi Arabia’s record-low wind tariffs, Bruins cautioned against direct comparisons. Egypt’s country risk premium sits around 700 bps, versus roughly 100 bps in the Kingdom. With that financing gap, “Egypt is actually already cheaper” when adjusting for cost of capital, he noted.

The worry is that developers may bid aggressively, only to struggle to make the business case work later. “Projects like these are usually 80% debt financed by international lenders,” Bruins said. A 1 GW project costing USD 1 bn would acquire roughly USD 800 mn in loans. If you’re paying 700 bps more in Egypt, you need a higher tariff to close, he explained.

Customs used to be the risk — now it’s improving

Past wind projects struggled with unpredictable customs delays. “In the first project, clearance sometimes ran into weeks, even months,” Bruins said. “That tied up capital and delayed site work.” In the second project, clearance time dropped to four or five days. “That’s a big improvement, and the Finance Ministry’s digitalization efforts are making a difference.” For the third project, he expects faster processing.

This matters because wind logistics are costly. “You’re talking about very costly components. If they’re stuck in customs and you have disruptions on site, that costs you an awful amount of money per day,” Bruins noted.

The blueprint?

Successful localization will require clustering, incentives, and long-term industrial planning. In China, wind manufacturing hubs “took 5-10 years to build,” Bruins noted, with towers, blades, generators, and electronics produced in the same area.

We could also take a page from how we did solar. Localization began with assembly and balance-of-system components before scaling alongside demand. The government created demand through policy mandates, giving manufacturers the confidence to invest.

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