Ethiopia will soon start building a 75 MW geothermal electricity project, the first of its kind in the Horn of Africa country, which is believed to have massive geothermal potential.
This follows the approval of a $126-million loan from the World Bank to implement the project, located at Aluto Langano, which lies about 200 km south-east of Addis Ababa, the capital city.
The country is also seeking funding for the 100 MW Tendaho geothermal project, and has initiated negotiations with various development finance institutions.
Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy spokesperson Bizuneh Tolcha says the Aluto Langano project marks the beginning of Ethiopia’s quest to tap the country’s enormous geothermal potential for power generation.
“About 13% of Ethiopia’s territory is located within the Rift Valley but the country is unable to produce a single megawatt of geothermal energy at the moment. We hope this project changes that picture,” he says.
While Ethiopia has invested heavily in hydropower projects and wind farms, exploitation of its vast geothermal resources has not taken off, mainly because of financial constraints, despite the fact that the longest section of the 7 000 km East African Rift Valley, which boasts an estimated geothermal potential of 10 000 MW, is in Ethiopia.
The country has, however, identified 22 prospective sites for geothermal development.
Ethiopia has invested heavily in the power sector, increasing generation capacity from about 850 MW to 4 000 MW in 15 years. Its ambition is to achieve universal electricity access by 2020 from the current 40% access rate. The country also wants to become a net exporter of electricity to the wider East Africa region and has signed power purchase agreements with Kenya, Tanzania, Djibouti and Sudan.
In East Africa, only Kenya, which is also traversed by the East African Rift Valley, has invested heavily in geothermal energy and currently generates 630 MW from the resource.