Egypt’s government seeks to increase the generation of solar power in New Valley governorate, the official Facebook page of Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said on Thursday.

The prime minister assigned the state minister for scientific research Nadia Zakhari to cooperate with the governorate to develop its use of solar power, the page said.

The government said last month it aims to increase the contribution of renewable energy sources in generating electricity to 20 percent by 2020 in comparison to 2.5 percent currently.

Egypt went through an energy crisis during the summer which caused frequent power cuts and long queues at gas stations.