The European Commission has launched the T-MED Investment Platform to accelerate renewable energy and clean technology investment across the Mediterranean, backed by up to €4.5 billion in guarantees through the European Fund for Sustainable Development.
According to the Commission, the platform was set up under the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy and Clean Tech Cooperation Initiative. The guarantees are intended to reduce investment risk, attract private capital and speed up viable projects. The platform will also facilitate cooperation between financial institutions, investors and project developers, matching promising projects with sources of funding.
Highlighting the region's significant renewable energy potential, the Commission said support would go to renewable electricity generation, renewable hydrogen, transmission and distribution grids, energy storage, cross-border interconnections and clean technology manufacturing. Beyond financing, the initiative will help improve regulation, permitting procedures, grid access and power purchase agreements, while developing workforce skills and local clean tech value chains.
Under T-MED, a €1.6 billion investment programme to modernise and expand Egypt's national electricity grid is being supported. New substations and transmission lines will be built to feed solar and wind power generated in the Red Sea and Gulf of Suez regions into the grid.
The Commission also noted that North Africa's first green ammonia project, a €575 million investment in Egypt's Ain Sokhna area, uses European-made electrolysers and exports its output to the EU market. EU guarantees are also backing the construction of one of Africa's largest hybrid solar projects in Egypt, worth around €430 million. In Tunisia, around €172 million in EU support has been provided for two 100-megawatt solar power plants and their associated transmission infrastructure.
Through T-MED, the EU aims to mobilise up to €25 billion in investment in renewable generation, power grids, interconnections and clean technologies by 2035.
