The winds in the Gulf of Suez "illuminate" thousands of households

Mahmoud Mohamed, an Egyptian engineer, is conducting an electrical inspection inside a wind turbine.

The construction site of the 500 - MW Gulf of Suez Wind Power Project in Egypt, undertaken by PowerChina.

(All the above pictures are taken by Shen Xiaoxiao, a reporter from People's Daily.)

On the eve of the Year of the Snake Spring Festival, with the last blade of the T24 wind turbine precisely installed in place, the hoisting task of the 77 wind turbines of the 500 - MW Gulf of Suez Wind Power Project in Egypt (hereinafter referred to as the "Gulf of Suez Wind Power Project") by PowerChina was successfully completed. Warm applause broke out at the site.

"We made it!" Mahmoud Mohamed, an Egyptian engineer who participated in the entire hoisting process, said excitedly. "I still remember the feeling when I climbed onto the high platform for the first time. It was really shocking. 94.5 meters. That was the first time I reached such a height during the hoisting work."

The Gulf of Suez Wind Power Project is located in the town of Ras Ghareb on the west coast of the Gulf of Suez, about 300 kilometers south of Cairo, the capital of Egypt. The project has 77 wind turbines. After completion, it is expected to generate about 2.7 billion kWh of clean electricity annually, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 1 million tons. Mohamed said, "Working in this wilderness, converting the wind in the Gulf of Suez into electricity to 'light up' thousands of households, I feel very proud."

"At the beginning of the project construction, this place was desolate, and there was no network signal," said Zhang Zhe, the project manager. The project team overcame difficulties by first building roads, transporting water with water trucks, and generating electricity with diesel engines to ensure the smooth progress of the project. Currently, the project has fully entered the sprint stage of grid - connected power generation.

The International Finance Corporation, a subsidiary of the World Bank, is the project financier. Valerie Levkov, a representative of the World Bank, once made a special trip to the project site for a visit. She highly praised the project progress and affirmed the sense of responsibility of Chinese enterprises. "We hope the practical cooperation with Chinese enterprises can continue."

Next to each wind turbine tower of the Gulf of Suez Wind Power Project, there stands a monitor about 2 meters high. Zhang Zhe told the reporter that the project team has developed an intelligent settlement monitoring and trend analysis and early - warning platform. "Wind turbines are highly sensitive to uneven settlement of the foundation. We have embedded sensors inside the wind turbine foundation, which can automatically upload data to the platform. If uneven settlement occurs, the system will automatically issue an early warning and conduct analysis."

Different from the traditional manual inspection of wind farms using total stations, the intelligent settlement monitoring equipment realizes all - day and automatic monitoring, greatly improving the efficiency, accuracy, and safety of monitoring.

Kamal is a construction safety officer. During his afternoon inspection, he received a mobile phone message reminder that a rectification suggestion he made this morning had been implemented. "When I found a problem during the inspection, I took a photo and uploaded it to the smart construction management platform and issued a rectification requirement. The relevant person in charge will carry out the rectification within the specified time and upload the photo of the rectification result to the platform. After I receive a notice from the platform and verify it is correct, the rectification work is completed. The whole process is smooth and efficient," Kamal said.

In the control center office, the reporter saw that the large screen was conducting real - time monitoring of the project construction through 11 cameras. "The smart construction management platform can promptly detect potential problems and respond and solve them quickly, providing all - round information support for the project implementation," said Zhi Wencai, the project information technology manager. He said that this smart construction management platform is the first of its kind in Egypt.

During the Spring Festival this year, Yan Haoran, the executive project manager, stuck to his post. This is the third Spring Festival he has spent overseas. He said that the project department organized friendly football and table - tennis matches between Chinese and Egyptian employees to jointly celebrate the Spring Festival, enhancing the friendship between Chinese and Egyptian employees. "We have been invited to the weddings of Egyptian colleagues many times and have deeply felt the hospitality of the local people."

Mahmoud Shifny runs a construction company and participated in the construction of the project roads and hoisting platforms as a subcontractor in 2023. "The project not only brings us job opportunities but also boosts the local catering, accommodation, and transportation industries in the town. The town's economy has become more vibrant," Shifny said. He hopes to carry out more cooperation with Chinese enterprises in the future, promote the establishment of a vocational and technical training school, and train more Egyptian technical talents.

The Gulf of Suez Wind Power Project provides about 700 job opportunities for local people. In the past, for most residents of the town of Ras Ghareb where the project is located, "clean energy" was just an unfamiliar term. Now, when walking on the streets of the town, many local residents will warmly tell the reporter, "The Chinese project is great!"

"The development of the green energy cause is inseparable from the joint efforts of Egyptian and Chinese colleagues." After completing the hoisting work, Mohamed and his colleagues threw themselves into the installation work of the generators. He said that his family is very happy that he can work for a Chinese enterprise. Chinese enterprises not only offer good salary and benefits but also provide skills training.

At 5 p.m., Mohamed and his colleagues, who had finished a day's work, took the commuting bus back to the town together. As night fell, the lights in the town were twinkling, illuminating their way.