CAIRO, May 25 (Aswat Masriya) - Investment Minister Ashraf Salman said it is expected that investments worth $45 billion will be pumped into Egypt's new and renewable energy sector over the next 10 years, state agency MENA reported on Monday.

Speaking at a conference on renewable energy, Salman said the government plans to raise energy production by up to 30,000 megawatts in the upcoming period, 8,000 of which will come from new and renewable energy sources.

Speakers at today's conference discussed obstacles facing companies that are implementing renewable energy projects.  

Egypt has been taking measures in recent months to diversify sources of energy, in a bid to face increasing demand for energy. 

The state faces a recurring energy crisis, with power outages surging in the summer.

The peak was during last summer, when power cuts were the most frequent and lasted for up to several hours a day. 

Egyptian authorities have often owed the power crisis to a larger fuel crisis and have turned to renewable energy such as solar and wind energy. Egypt has also sought the assistance of Russia to set up a nuclear power plant, in an agreement in February.

But the shift towards new and renewable energy will cost the state. In October, Egypt's Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said the cost of producing renewable energy is "much larger" than that of relying on fossil fuels.

He added that the funding needed to set up renewable energy poses as a "large burden" on the state's budget.  

Salman said in today's conference that the market has been opened to allow investment from the private sector in both energy production and distribution.