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Greece’s Copelouzos Sees Start of Power Link With Egypt in 2030

By Paul Tugwell
Buildings on the skyline in the Koukaki district of Athens, Greece, on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Koukaki went from being a neighborhood that once attracted small businesses with cheap rent to a hyped destination for young, artistic Greeks before becoming what it is now: a ghost neighborhood full of short-term visitors that come and go depending on seasonality. Photographer: Ioana Epure/Bloomberg (Ioana Epure/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Greece’s Copelouzos Group is speeding up development of its €4.2 billion ($4.3 billion) power link with Egypt, looking to reach a final investment decision next year and its startup in 2030, the executive in charge of the project said.

Known as Gregy, the proposed undersea transmission line has attracted “strong interest” from European banks for potential financing, Ioannis Karydas, chief executive officer for renewables, energy storage and interconnections, said in an interview in Athens. 

Greece has seen increasing investments in energy infrastructure, from LNG terminals to pipeline links and power lines. That’s turning the Mediterranean nation into a gateway for imports into Europe as the continent seeks independence from Russian gas and plans to cut net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. 

Gregy has entered the European Union’s list of energy projects of common and mutual interest, which makes it eligible for a grant for as much as 50% of the cost of construction. Greece’s power grid operator IPTO also said in November it would consider investing in it.  

The link, which will consist of 4 cables stretching almost 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) across the eastern Mediterranean, aims to bring electricity from a 9.5 gigawatt portfolio of wind and solar projects that Copelouzos will develop in Egypt as a separate project, Karydas said.

One third of the electricity will be for Greek industry, one third for transfers to Bulgaria, Italy and onward to other European countries, and another third for Greek production of fuels such as hydrogen and green methanol for ships, according to Karydas. The project has the potential to replace 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, he added. 

The wind and solar parks in Egypt will require as much as €8 billion of investments, and Copelouzos aims for an international consortium of companies to develop them. A memorandum of understanding has already been signed with Infinity Power — a joint venture between Egypt’s Infinity and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar, Karydas said.

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