Within five weeks, wind generated in MENA could be flowing across a national border at gigawatt scale.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are scheduled to bring the first 1,500 MW phase of their 3,000 MW interconnection online before the end of Q2 2026. Converter stations at East Medina and Tabuk on the Saudi side and Badr City on the Egyptian side are joined by 1,350 km of overhead lines, built under 1.8 billion dollars of contracts awarded in 2021.
In our view, that single piece of infrastructure changes what wind is for. Once energised, the link will let wind generated in Egypt and Saudi Arabia serve summer peak load on either side of the Red Sea.
This is not a one-off. Türkiye’s grid plan of roughly 30 billion dollars includes 14,700 km of new HVDC lines. ACWA Power secured $226 million of debt for its 300 MW Bash II wind farm in Uzbekistan earlier this month, another sign that MENA wind capital already moves across borders.
We think the cost story for MENA wind is settled, and that interconnection is the story of the next 18 months. Which MENA wind farm sells its first MWh across a national border?
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