Ethiopia Announce Wind PlanPosted on 17/11/2010 The Ethiopian Electric Power
Corporation (EEPCo) has signed agreements for the creation of two large
wind farms that will significantly alter life in a country where only 25
percent of residents currently have access to electricity.
Ethiopia’ first ever wind power plant will be built in Ashegoda,
near Mekelle, the capital of the nation’s Tigray province. The first
phase of the project, which is being overseen by France’s Vergnet
Groupe, is expected to be completed by June 2011, and will have a
capacity of 30 MW. When the plant is fully operational, in 2013, its total capacity will be 120 MW, the utility said. Financing for the €210 million project has been provided by BNP Paribas, a French bank. EEPCo
also announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with
Terra Energy Developers for the engineering, procurement and
construction of a 400 MW wind park project in Debre Berhan, about 130 km
north of Addis Ababa, the political and commercial capital of the
country. Under the agreement, Terra Energy ‒ which is based in
Nevada in the US ‒ will set up a wind turbine assembly plant in Ethiopia
and arrange the required financing. Terra Energy ‒ a joint
venture between Princeton Energy Group, Global Enterprise Engineering
Solutions and Pacific Renewable Energy Consulting ‒ will also handle the
technology transfer and manage the plant. Debre Berhan Wind Park
is one of the seven wind projects EEPCo plans to get under way in the
next five years. It was initially estimated to be able to generate 100
MW, but that projection was dramatically increased after completion of a
second assessment of the site. “Terra Energy is expected to do a
feasibility study, environmental impact assessment, and financial
proposal during the contract year,” said Mekuria Lemma, acting director
of corporation planning for EEPCo, in an interview with Fortune
magazine. US-based Terra Energy, a joint venture between
Princeton Energy Group, Global Enterprise Engineering (GE2) Solutions,
and Pacific Renewable Energy Consulting, said it intends to source,
fabricate and cast materials for its wind turbines from local companies.
“Our aim is to establish an assembly plant in the short-term and
a manufacturing plant in the long-term," said Dereje Abebe, Terra
Energy’s Ethiopian-born director of Africa Operations in the same
Fortune magazine piece. “This will bring about technology transfer,
import substitution, and, eventually, export.”
|
