Ethiopia has signed an agreement to build two geothermal power plants at a combined cost of $4 billion, to be run by the country\u2019s first privately-owned utility.\u00a0The Corbetti and Tulu Moye plants will produce a combined 1,000 MW of power upon completion in eight years time in the volcanically-active Rift Valley south of the capital Addis Ababa.\u00a0Ethiopia is eager to meet rising energy demand from its industries as well as becoming the continent\u2019s biggest exporter of energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt the success of this effort will have a significant impact in the country\u2019s future economic well-being,\u201d said Azeb Asnake, chief executive of state-run Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP).\u00a0The project\u2019s equity investors include the Paris-based asset manager Meridiam, as well as the Africa Renewable Energy Fund and InfraCo Africa – funds that focus on infrastructure.\u00a0As Ethiopia\u2019s first privately-owned utility, the project will be operated by the developers for a period of 25 years.\u00a0In an economy traditionally dominated by state spending, the government has suggested that the nascent sector could be a model for increased private investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing forward, the government recognises the added value to be gained by working in partnership with the private sector, specifically in sharing with it the burden of investment for large-scale power generation,\u201d said Seleshi Bekele, minister of water, irrigation and electricity.<\/p>\n

Under a new 2015-2020 development plan, Addis Ababa wants to raise power generation to 17,346 MW from a current capacity of just over 4,300 MW from hydropower, wind and geothermal sources.\u00a0It has an array of projects under construction, including the $4.1 billion Grand Renaissance Dam along its share of the Nile river that will churn out 6,000 MW at full capacity upon completion within the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

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Ethiopia has signed an agreement to build two geothermal power plants at a combined cost of $4 billion, to be run by the country\u2019s first privately-owned utility.\u00a0The Corbetti and Tulu Moye plants will produce a combined 1,000 MW of power upon completion in eight years time in the volcanically-active Rift Valley south of the capital …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":9915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-embassy-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/ist2_3963187-geothermal-energy.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9916,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9914\/revisions\/9916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}