Greece and Egypt have reaffirmed their commitment to a proposed undersea power cable designed to transport renewable energy from North Africa to Europe.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi renewed the pledge during talks in Athens, following the signing of cooperation agreements across multiple sectors.
The planned 3,000-megawatt capacity cable will stretch nearly 1,000 kilometers under the eastern Mediterranean and has secured backing from the European Union, making it eligible for significant funding from the bloc.
“This will allow both Greece and Europe to import low-cost energy – primarily wind energy, which you are able to produce very competitively – and export it to Europe,” Mitsotakis said.
The project, estimated to cost around €4 billion, is expected to become operational within five years under an ambitious timeline set by both governments.
It aims to transmit solar and wind-generated power explicitly developed for the project in Egypt, with private sector involvement led by Greece’s Copelouzos Group.
El-Sissi highlighted the project’s strategic importance.
“It’s not just a bilateral matter – it’s a strategic regional project, as it creates a direct link that will extend to Europe via Greece,” he said.
“We count on the European Union’s support for this major initiative.”
The EU has expressed strong interest in expanding energy partnerships with non-member countries to diversify its energy sources and reduce its historic dependence on Russian energy following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The project known as “GREGY- Elica Interconnector” receives the firm support of both countries, Greece and Egypt, but also of the European Commission, as the project has been included in the 6th PCI/PMI list of projects of the European Union, as well as in the Global Gateway framework of the Union, which includes projects of high strategic importance for Europe.
It will carry 100 percent green energy produced from renewable energy plants in Egypt, benefiting both residential and business consumers in Greece and neighboring EU countries.
According to the Copelouzos Group, there is a positive green energy footprint of the project. The 3,000 megawatts of electricity that the GREGY project will transfer will replace 4.5 bcm of natural gas per year and reduce CO2 emissions by 10 million tons per year.
The Group adds that GREGY will help tackle the climate crisis and accelerate the transition to a green economy.
This positive dimension of GREGY is further enhanced if one takes into account the use of the energy transferred: about one third will be consumed in Greece, one third will be exported to neighboring EU countries and one third will be used in Greece for the production of green hydrogen, with the largest amount of this hydrogen also being exported to neighboring countries.
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