A partnership between private companies, academia and commu-nity organisations is advancing the development of agrivoltaic systems in Egypt to support climate-resilient agriculture, renewable-energy generation and community-led innovation in desert environments.

The partnership includes renewable-energy consultancy 3E, sustainable infrastructure organisation ORG, Egyptian independent power and water producer Engazaat, Egypt-based sustainability and community development organisation Habiba Community, and Alexandria University’s water research centre, the Alexandria University Center of Excellence for Water.

Agrivoltaic systems combine solar PV panels with farming by installing the panels above or alongside crops, allowing the same land to be used for both electricity generation and agricultural production.

The initiative is located in a remote, arid region of South Sinai, where a local nomadic community lives, and aims to develop a scalable model for climate adaptation and food security in arid regions through decentralised agrivoltaic systems powered entirely by renewable energy. The current installation is a 6 kWp pilot project developed for research and demonstration purposes to validate the model and support future large-scale deployment.

The project integrates agriculture, solar energy and water management into a decentralised agrivoltaic system designed to improve resource efficiency while minimising carbon emissions.

As part of the initiative, solar PV panels are installed in high- temperature environments such as Egypt, where the partial shading provided by the panels is intended to reduce heat stress and water evaporation while generating electricity for local communities.

Building on the pilot phase, a further 100 kWp installation is being implemented in Al Moghra, Marsa Matrouh, to support the project’s planned expansion in Egypt’s arid regions.

The project also serves as a research platform to assess the long-term potential of agrivoltaics in arid climates.

As part of the collaboration, 3E has provided renewable-energy expertise and led the engineering design of the agrivoltaic systems through its research and development and engineering teams.

Over the past year, the company completed the technical design of the agrivoltaic installations, with parts of the project already constructed and additional sections under development.

The project will also be integrated with 3E’s SynaptiQ renewable asset analytics platform to enable continuous data collection, site monitoring and performance analysis. The partners intend to use the data to evaluate agricultural, environmental and energy performance over time and support the optimisation and replication of similar systems.

The initiative is based on five focus areas: agrivoltaic system development and validation, climate mitigation through agrivoltaic deployment, agricultural adaptation strategies for arid regions, community resilience and local capacity building, and environmental and operational performance monitoring.

The partners are also evaluating how combining renewable- energy generation with agriculture and water optimisation could improve land productivity and resource efficiency in regions experiencing water scarcity and rising temperatures.

3E innovation head Gofran Chowdhury said the project, supported by the government of Flanders, Belgium and research partners, had enabled the deployment of solar design and digital solutions for a nomadic community in South Sinai. Chowdhury added construction of the project is continuing, while monitoring systems are being deployed to assess the performance of the climate- resilient agriculture model.