1 Title Present Capacity Building Schemes in Egypt

Building of capacities that stimulates the sharing of scientific knowledge and best practices, promotes the development of energy policies, supports pilot initiatives and provides technical assistance to the government. The number one barrier to renewable energy scale-up in Egypt and the developing world in general is identified to be cost. In Egypt, the Science and Technology Development Fund (STDF) has been found in 2007 as a governmental entity that helps building capacities in terms of infrastructure and human resources with an annual budget of $100 million. It is under the umbrella of the Egyptian Ministry of Scientific Research and is therefore considered as the focal point to solve national challenges from an R&D perspective. Targeting research proposals that deal with energy-food-water has been a focus in the last two years. In collaboration with the Ministry of Electricity and Energy large solar power plants, with production capacities ranging from 20 MW to 50 MW, will start operation in 2016 and will add 1,500 MW to the grid’s total capacity.