Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala will invest $3bn in a railway line connecting Oman with the UAE. On February 21 the sovereign wealth fund announced its capital pledge as part of a cooperation agreement it had signed with the Oman and Etihad Rail Company joint venture which is developing the project.

The 303-kilometre (km) railway line was announced last September and will serve high-speed passenger and freight trains. The network will connect Abu Dhabi to Oman’s deep-sea port in Sohar.

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“This strategic partnership with Oman and Etihad Rail are an important step towards advancing economic development and strengthening cooperation between the two countries,” said Mubadala executive director Bakhit Saeed Al Katheeri in a statement on February 21.

Ford announces one of Europe’s biggest battery plants

US automaker Ford has signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s LGES and Istanbul-based Koç Holding to build an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Turkey. The firms announced their plans on February 21 and said the plant will be “one of Europe’s largest commercial EV battery cell facilities.”

The consortium will break ground on the plant in the Başkent industrial zone near Ankara later this year, and production is due to start in 2026. It will produce between 25 and 45 gigawatt hours per year. 

“We are delivering on the commitment to produce batteries in the same region where we build EVs. Establishing the new joint venture … will lay a solid foundation that is fundamental to building a thriving EV future for Ford in Europe,” said Ford’s vice president of EV Industrialisation, Lisa Drake, in a February 21 statement.

Irish–Spanish consortium backs Portugal’s wind ambitions

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IberBlue Wind has announced a 990-megawatt offshore floating wind project off the coast of Portugal. The joint venture between Spain’s Proes Consultores and FF New Energy Ventures, and Ireland’s Simply Blue Group, announced the project on February 17.

The Botafogo windfarm will be located between 30km and 50km off the coast of Figueira da Foz and will create thousands of jobs, the group said in a statement at the time.

“Figueira da Foz is a region with great potential. Besides the high wind strengths and the existing port infrastructure, it’s located near to the centre of the country where there is significant [energy] demand,” said IberBlue Wind vice president Adrián de Andrés.

And finally: Cairo-based Elsewedy Data Centers and Emirati Gulf Data Hub agreed on February 15 to develop a $2.1bn data centre complex in Egypt, which will be the biggest in Africa.