Conservation dampens Egypt's green efforts

CAIRO, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Wind energy ambitions of the Egyptian government are hampered by threats that wind farms pose to migratory bird pathways, a conservationist said.

Egypt has about 550 megawatts of wind power installed. It set a goal of generating more than 7,000 MW of wind energy as part of a plan to use renewable energy to meet 20 percent of the country's demand by 2020.

A Red Sea coastal area targeted by the Egyptian government has a wind regime on par with some of the best wind-energy areas of the North Sea. However, more than 1.5 million migratory birds, including globally threatened species, pass through the area every year.

"It's unfortunate but the area in Egypt with the highest wind speed is also a bottleneck in one of the world's biggest bird migration routes," environmental consultant Mindy Baha al-Din told Egypt Independent.

The government said it was considering limiting wind development for part of the Red Sea coastal area because of a "topographical bottleneck" for bird species.

"If the birds want to cross the Gulf of Suez to Sinai they must come this way because it's the narrowest crossing point," said Baha al-Din.