World Bulletin / News Desk

Egypt is seeking to increase its electricity generation from renewable sources and decrease reliance on fossil fuels.

Egypt's finance minister Hani Kadri Demian said in a statement on Monday that the country was ready to allocate funds to finance a general national project to enable lighting to be created from solar energy instead of fossil fuels as soon as possible.

"We are seriously working in adopting any project enabling Egypt to use renewable energy and achieve an extreme saving in fuels," said Demian.

The minister said studies were being conducted into how to switch government buildings, public enterprises and roads from using traditional lighting systems to smart ones through solar and other renewable energy sources.

"We will gain a great benefit if we light streets with solar energy," he said, pointing out that the data issued from the Electricity Ministry indicated that the street and road lighting accounted for about 4.5 percent of the country's electricity use.

Meanwhile, Demain met Shaaban Khalaf, head of the New and Renewable Energy Authority, and representatives of the Ministry of Electricity and the Renewable Energy Authority to determine how to evaluate the current energy situation in the country.

During the meeting, officials asked the Ministry of Finance to provide about $3.9 million funds to implement the first phase of a solar power installation project for the 50 buildings that belong to 15 government ministries.

Egypt supplies 95 percent of its energy demand from fossil fuels and the country is aiming to meet 20 percent of electricity needs from renewable energy by 2020, under Egypt’s present energy strategy.