wiredInUSA February 2019

Furthering Iran’s renewables plan

Fiber spread in Egypt

Egypt has revealed plans for a major overhaul of its infrastructure, replacing up to 95 percent of its copper network with fiber by 2020. The deputy spokesperson of the Egyptian government’s communication and IT committee, Ahmed Zidane, said that the committee has filed a complaint with Egypt’s ministry of communication over low Internet speeds in Egypt, with, to date, only 60 percent of copper cables replaced with fiber. In recent years, state-owned Telecom Egypt has worked to replace copper wires with fiber in all Egyptian governorates. The government’s digital transformation strategy aims to connect more people across the country. According to Statista, 43.3 percent of Egypt’s population used the Internet in 2015, and this is expected to grow to around 53 percent in 2019. To meet rising demand, Egypt has opened local fiber manufacturing plants as part of an agreement between Egyptian HitekNofal Solutions and the Chinese Hengtong Group. Liquid Telecom recently announced an agreement with Telecom Egypt to expand its network into Egypt using the latter’s infrastructure.

A senior official has confirmed that Iran will build a 1,000MW solar farm, its largest to date, in Markazi province, central Iran. Saeed Farokhi, the province’s deputy governor general for economic affairs, said the photovoltaic power plant will be constructed near the city of Saveh. According to the official, the equipment and panels required to produce 100MW of electricity have already been imported, and the implementation of the project will begin in the near future. The project has been funded by a UK-based Iranian investor. Renewable ventures are gaining popularity in Iran which, with over 300 days of sunshine throughout the year, has huge potential to expand solar energy infrastructure and attract foreign investments. Iran meets more than 80 percent of its demand for electricity from thermal power plants, run on fossil fuels. Of the daily production capacity of 80,000MW, only 670MW is from renewables. Photo by American Public Power Association on Unsplash

wiredInUSA - February 2019

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