Pumped Storage Hydropower

First 15GW Pumped Storage Hydropower project in Egypt - a 15 Billion USD foreign Investment

El-Tor Green Valley — Egypt’s First 15 GW Pumped Storage Hydropower Project

Located in the South of Sinai near El-Tor and Sharm El-Sheikh, El-Tor Green Valley brings together a unique combination of natural resources to create one of the largest and most cost-competitive pumped storage hydropower projects in the world. The project will provide Egypt with affordable, locally produced green baseload power, large-scale grid storage, instant power response, and blackout recovery — reducing Egypt’s dependence on LNG imports and gas-fired power generation.

Project at a Glance

El-Tor Green Valley will deliver 27 TWh of electricity per year — approximately 10% of Egypt’s total projected electricity demand by 2030, and nearly 3X the output of the Aswan Dam. Total foreign investment is estimated at 15 billion USD, with up to 30% local content and a project lifetime of 50 years.

The project will be developed in three phases, aligned with offtake demand. Phase 1 is fully dedicated to supplying power and energy storage to the Ministry of Electricity and EETC, securing the bankability of this first phase from the outset.

Key Benefits for Egypt

15 billion USD in foreign investment
Up to 30% local content
50-year project lifetime
Up to 10% of Egypt’s electricity needs met with green baseload power
Tens of thousands of jobs during construction; thousands of permanent operational jobs
Long-term energy price security through locally produced electricity
250 GWh large-scale grid storage — equivalent to 50,000 battery containers of 5 MWh each
Major development contribution to South Sinai, aligned with the vision of President Sisi
Foundation for future green fuel industries including AI data-centers, green fuel production

An exceptional site where coastal exposure, available land, high solar irradiation levels, and favorable granite topography converge to offer an unmatched renewable energy development opportunity.

After two years of coordination between all stake holders, Renergy and The National Center For Planning Stateland Uses (NCPSLU), finalized the land allocation for the 3 project phases. The total project area is about 125km2.

The main project areas are:

Hydropower dam – 175m high in the Mountains for 185 million m3 water
Under gound tunnels with up to 8GW pump-tubines
Lower Reservoirs up to 185 mil m3
Solar plant up to 15GW
Industrial Area – Power Distribution
Sea-site industrial Area with Desilanation plant and RoRo
Residential Area for the workers with about 1500 apartments
270km 500KV high voltage line to O-Moussa

Pump Storage is one of the most cost effective ways to store grid scale energy, below the schematic overview of the Pump Storage Hydro Power project.

The fresh water, agriculture water made by the project desalination plant, will be pumped up from the lower to the higher reservoir, by the Solar energy during the day. During the night the water flows from the higher reservoir to the lower reservoir to produce electricity by the Generators. So the project is a full closed loop water system, a huge water battery.

To give you an idea, the El-Tor project can store 250GWh, can run 3.1 GW for 80 hours backup, this is equivalent to 50.000 battery / BESS containers of 5MWh.

The higher reservoir is located 800 metres high in the mountain, storing 185 million m3 behind the dam. The two lower reservoirs of 100 million m3 each, will be built in two phases.

The dam will be a massive civil project on its own, 175 meters high, and about 1 km wide with an estimated 7 million m3 of concrete.

The natural shape of the mountain enables the building of a efficient dam, storing huge amount of water behind it

The higher reservoir and lower reservoir are connected by two huge 12meter diameter underground tunnels of about 6 km long, 500 below the surface.

The tunnels can handle flow over 1000m3 per second divided over a network of sub-tunnels and 22 pump-turbines of 370MW, total 8.1GW pump-turbine capacity.

For phase 1 we are aiming to deliver 1.25GW green baseload power with 125GWh storage to the grid. The daily power profile is show below, combined with the water head between the lower and of the upper reservoir, moving between 460meter and 495 meter in the daily cycle. The project will deliver stable 1.25GW to the grid, handle peak loads during the day up to 5GW shifting this peak load by the pump storage, in a daily cycle of 20GWh, the blue and grey area.

The full project can deliver 3.1GW baseload power to the grid, with 250GWh storage, and will handle almost 13GW peakload during the day, shifting about 50GWh per daily cycle. The water head between lower and higher reservoirs is in the range of 465 to 520 metres.

The El-Tor project can deliver green baseload power and grid services to support the Egyptian power grid, substitute old LNG gas Power plants, or add baseload power to the huge increase of demand of 30% by 2030, minimal baseload will increase from about 20GW to an estimated 26GW by 2030.

Below an overview from all gas power plants, red and orange are potential old and inefficient power plants, a total of about 16 locations.

The El-Tor will include a new 500KV high voltage overhead line to O-Mousa, route 1. The new line will be mainly going parallel to the existing old 220KV powerline. The feasibility study and routing are done by Madkour and preliminary approved by EETC.

The O-Mousa substation is one of the biggest, main substations of Egypt, also connecting Jordan.

The full EISA study over the full 275km is also finished, and part of the submission to EEAA. There is an optional alternative to connect the El-Tor to the other projects at Sohna by route 2, through the Red Sea.

The new grid 500KV connection route is designed by the blue line, mainly parallel to the old current 220KV line.

The Sea-Site Industrial Area, about 5km2, is an important area for the project to develop the project efficient, with a RoRO to handle all materials and equipment needed.

Next to the RoRo the industrial area facilitates a massive very efficient desalination plant, to produce the fresh water (agriculture water) for the Pump Storage, a total of 185 million m3 in 2-3 years.

The capacity of the desalination plant is 70 million m3 per year, producing 1m3 of water with less than 1.5kWh.

The El-Tor Green Valley project has all facilities to accommodate the next step project in renewable fuel, like hydrogen, liquid hydrogen, ammonia, fertilisers plants.

A full residential area has been designed for the needs of many thousands of workers, staying at El-Tor, fully compliant with all international standards. The residential area will have all needed accommodation for the workers and people, like schools, hospital, sport facilities and nearby the city El-Tor.

The design of the residential area is based on 4 level apartments with nice spaces, good living surroundings. After the building period the project will handover the residential area to the Giza Government to provide housing for the coming 50 years.

THe new residential area for the workers is near to the city of El-Tor, built to stay.

The EISA study was finished in March 2026, after more than two years hard work, the Renergy team submitted one of the biggest EISA studies ever done in Egypt at the EEAA. The study was divided into 9 substudies, and was over 5000 pages.

An important part of the EISa study was the public consultation, the last one held in August 2025 at Sharm El Sheik, with many people attending, supporting the project.

The new El-Tor office of Renergy was supporting the many people who were doing all studies the last two years as part of the feasibility study.

Renergy has shared all the EISA studies with NREA for free, to join all study results of the full Red-Sea area on two sides.

After phase 1 with power and storage only, depending on the market development, offtake and bankability, the project can deliver a full range of renewable energy fuels,and derivatives like hydrogen gas, liquid hydrogen, ammonia, (e)methanol, fertilisers.

The EISA has all permits to handle and produce these new green fuels. Also the Sea-Site has all the facilities with our own RoRo and Jetty, cooling water permits.

The El-Tor project has the full support of the PM cabinet, and from the Prime Minister. The project was presented in August 2023.

Renergy and partners finished a joint study with the Ministry Of Electricity And Renewable Energy, EETC and EEHC to find the best solution, how the El-Tor project can provide the Egyptian grid with the best load profile by baseload power and/or large scale grid storage, according to the demand profile, considering the new signed solar and wind PPA’s.

Advisory Board

Mr. Diederik Samsom

Former Member of Parliament and Leader of the Dutch Labour Party
Principal architect of the EU Green Deal & RePowerEU
Expert on EU H2 policy, regulations & financing

Prof. Dr. Ad van Wijk

Professor ‘Future Energy Systems’ at Delft University of Technology
Advisory Board Dii Desert Energy
Leading expert on H2 transition
Key role in shaping EU H2 policy

Mr Robert Valk

CEO And Founder Of Green Tech Egypt & Renergy Group Partners
35 yrs+ experience as business leader
Expert in renewable energy project dev.
Investor and sponsor of large-scale sustainable energy projects

Mr. Diego Vilanova

42+ years in large-scale hydropower with Neyrpic, Alstom, GE, Andritz
Senior executive with experience in global large-scale project and market leadership

Mr. Talal Al Zain

CEO, Middle East & North Africa, Co-Head Alternative Investments at PineBridge Investments
Leading expert in funding and investments in the Middle East

Mr. Abdalla Elebiary

Director Alvarez & Marsal’s Sovereign Advisory Services
Served as Chief Investment Officer of The Sovereign Fund of Egypt
served as the first Chairman of the CIO council of the EMENA network

Dr Mostafa Madkour

Founder and Chairman of the Madkour Company – Leading company in Grid/Utility solutions
37+ years of business experience
Ph.D. in “Electrical Power & Machines” from RPI USA, & Cairo University