Country: Ethiopia

AMEA Power, a Dubai-based developer, owner and operator of green energy projects, has developed a strong appetite for Africa over recent years. The company already built West Africa’s biggest solar plant, a 50 MW PV facility in Blitta, Togo. Its commissioned and under-construction solar projects total some 130 MW, spread between Morocco, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Uganda. The company has now embarked on a significant scaling up of its renewable energy capacity on the continent via new solar, wind, and hydrogen projects. Its has a pipeline of over 1 GW of solar PV projects in various stages of development in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Mali, Chad, Gabon, Angola, and Djibouti. In November 2022, it also signed an MoU for a new 50 MW facility in Malawi, and announced in January 2023 the signing of a concession agreement and 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for a new 50 MW solar PV project in Côte d’Ivoire. Its African portfolio is also on the verge of diversification, with wind projects of some 950 MW in total being developed in Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Last but not least, AMEA Power intends to leverage on Africa’s significant renewable energy potential to produce green hydrogen. It has currently selected Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Angola for up to 3.5 GW of green hydrogen projects that could be approved over the coming years.  

Tulu Moye Geothermal Operations (TMGO) has announced the spudding of the GD1 well by Marriott Drilling at its Tulu Moye geothermal project in Ethiopia. Marriott Drilling is the second drilling contractor mobilized on site along with the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen). TMGO is a joint venture of Meridiam (51%) and Reykjavik Geothermal (49%) that is developing Ethiopia’s first Independent Power Producer (IPP) project. The Tulu Moye geothermal facilities are expected to be set up on one of the best geothermal fields in the world, with an estimated capacity of over 1 GW. Phase 1 is targeting 50 MW by December 2024 and by 150 MW by 2025 under an $800m investment programme, before eventually ramping up to 520 MW. KenGen started drilling for phase 1 in March 2020 but had to suspend operations for several months due to travel restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Drilling activities were able to resume only in mid-June 2020 and the first well, GA1, was completed in early 2021. GA2 and GA3 were eventually drilled throughout 2021 followed by GB1 in early 2022. Details on the Tulu Moye Geothermal Project in Ethiopia are available in the “Projects” section within your Hawilti+ research terminal.

On Sunday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed presided over a ceremony that marked the start of power generation at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam’s first turbine (375 MW). The 6,000 MW hydroelectric station is Africa’s biggest and most controversial and has been in construction for about a decade. The multi-billion dollar mega-dam was built on the Blue Nile, where most of the waters that flow into the Nile River in Sudan and Egypt originates. While two key treaties were signed in 1929 and 1959 on the use of the Nile waters, Ethiopia was not part of it and went ahead with the development of the project in 2011. The dam is 1.8km-long and 155m-high with total volume of 10.4 million m3, making it the biggest dam in Africa and one of the largest in the world. Initially scheduled for completion in 2018, the dam’s construction was delayed due to poor execution of works by METEC, which was taken off the project and replaced by new contractors in 2019.