But it is only now moving to exploit them, after the cost of natural gas imports jumped.

A sharp decline in domestic gas production combined with growing consumption caught authorities off-guard last year and led to rolling blackouts over the sweltering summer."It has been a big wake-up call, and this is the reason why the government recently announced a big emergency package," said Ahmed Mortada, Head of Energy in Egypt for multilateral lender the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Egypt had to fork out over $1 billion more than it had expected for imported liquefied natural gas last year and analysts estimate it will spend billions more in 2025.

Solar companies say they can supply electricity much cheaper than that generated by gas turbines, using inexpensive panels from China, but complain that market-distorting power subsidies and restrictive regulations have frustrated rollouts.

"God has blessed Egypt with really good solar resources, and very good land resources," Hussain Al Nowais, Chairperson of United Arab Emirates-based renewables energy producer AMEA Power, told reporters in December.

--Reuters--