Kemet Industries Group and China based energy storage manufacturer Cornex have signed a cooperation agreement to establish a battery manufacturing facility in Egypt with an annual production capacity of 5 gigawatt hours.
The project is structured around the use of local industrial inputs, a detail that signals Cairo’s intent to move beyond assembly toward deeper supply chain localization. At 5 GWh, the facility would be sufficient to support several large scale grid storage projects annually, depending on system configuration and discharge duration.
The agreement goes beyond manufacturing volumes. According to Egypt’s Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energy Mahmoud Esmat, the project includes provisions for technology transfer, positioning it as a potential template for future industrial partnerships. That emphasis reflects a persistent challenge in Egypt’s renewable energy expansion. While generation capacity has grown rapidly over the past decade, domestic manufacturing of advanced energy technologies has lagged, leaving projects dependent on imported components and foreign technical expertise.
Energy storage is increasingly central to Egypt’s grid strategy. As solar and wind capacity expand, particularly in utility scale developments, the need for flexibility and peak load management becomes more pronounced. Batteries address short duration balancing and grid stability, but cost and supply chain reliability remain barriers. Local manufacturing reduces exposure to currency risk and global supply disruptions, while also aligning with government efforts to prioritize domestic content in national energy projects.
Esmat has indicated that the government is developing regulations to increase the local component in renewable energy projects to 60 percent. For battery systems, this raises practical questions about how quickly local suppliers can meet quality and performance standards typically required by grid operators and financiers. Battery manufacturing is capital intensive and quality sensitive, and reliance on local inputs must be balanced against bankability concerns, particularly for projects financed by international lenders.
The Cornex partnership also underscores Egypt’s positioning as a regional energy hub rather than a purely domestic market. A 5 GWh facility exceeds near term local demand alone, suggesting export ambitions or regional supply to markets in North Africa and the Middle East where grid scale storage remains underdeveloped. However, competition is intensifying, with multiple countries pursuing similar localization strategies as battery costs decline and storage becomes integral to power system planning.
Private sector involvement is central to this strategy. Esmat has emphasized the role of private companies in localizing advanced electrical equipment and supplies, framing the battery factory as part of a wider industrial ecosystem rather than a standalone investment. The challenge will be ensuring that localization policies attract sustained investment rather than creating protectionist constraints that limit technology choice or slow deployment.
