Our 200GW wind farm in Ras Ghareb, Egypt comes as a testament of our inclination towards China as a strategic partner instead of Western manufacturers for achieving our current goal: reaching 10GW of operational renewable projects by 2030.
Our Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract with POWERCHINA HUADONG ENGINEERING CORPORATION LIMITED (HDEC) signed in June 2024 serves as a start of a long-term partnership with China. It offers better and cost-efficient solutions for the increasing prices of western wind turbines, as our Chairman Mohamed Ismail Mansour discussed in a feature interview with Semafor last year.
“What happened in the solar industry — China versus the West — is happening today in a big way in the wind industry. In a big way.” He said.
The U.S. pioneered the solar panels technology in 1954. It managed to maintain firm control over the PV market until Chinese rivals entered the race around 2013, offering panels at nearly half the cost of incumbents, a move that cost the U.S. its share of the market by 2024. Now, China dominates 100% of the market as per a study by Bloomberg. (https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-opinion-how-us-lost-solar-power-race-to-china/)
According to Mansour, the same is currently happening in the wind industry, and for the exact same reasons: cost-efficiency due to strong government support and better quality in terms of size and power. This gives the Chinese a chance to dominate the wind market, all while offering a better after-sales service and more attention to African customers:
“Developing in Africa, we’re lucky that we can look at anybody we basically want to look at; we’re not restricted by European laws or US laws,” Mansour said. “From that exercise over the years, the best value has been — always — in China.”
He believes that western manufacturers will soon lose the ability to compete:
“You can try to patch [shortcomings] up with import tariffs, but, long term, if you don’t fix your product, you’re going to lose out on market share.”
With about 1.3GW of solar and onshore wind operational projects in Egypt, South Africa, and Senegal, Mansour said that Infinity Power will turn to China for upcoming projects, as the price gap between Chinese and European manufacturers was as significant as $1.2 million per GW (Vestas and Siemens) against $650,000 to $70,.000 (Goldwind and Envision).
As China remains firmly on track with an eye to dominate the wind market, Infinity Power is seizing the opportunity to deliver electricity to underserved regions, addressing critical power needs across all 54 African countries.