Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has pledged to link Egypt to the EU energy market through the undersea cable projects Egypt signed with each of Greece and Cyprus this week. “[Egypt’s] link to Europe will be Greece … [it] can also become a provider of electricity, which will be produced mainly by the sun,” the Associated Press quoted Mitsotakis as saying in a summit in Athens yesterday. This would eventually allow Egypt to step up as a key regional energy player, especially amid the global energy crunch, Mitsotakis added. Energy cooperation with Greece and Cyprus was also a key topic in President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s closing speech at the summit.

A step toward our energy ambitions: The USD 4 bn EuroAfrica Interconnector project, which will connect the electrical grids of Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus, will see an undersea cable built crossing the Mediterranean from Egypt, giving us a window to exchange electricity with Europe. Egypt, which has committed to producing 42% of its electricity from renewables by 2035, produces an excess of solar energy, which is notoriously hard to store, thanks to the completion of the 1.5 GW Benban solar park. The country has ambitions to become a regional energy hub and exporter of green energy.