The 50-megawatt (MW) Reppie Waste to Energy facility, which Ethiopia claims to be the first of its kind in Africa, will be commissioned in December, according to Ethiopian government officials. “The facility in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is 94.3-percent complete as of July,” said Bizuneh Tolcha, minster at Ethiopia’s Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE).
The project is being built on Ethiopia’s largest landfill commonly called “Koshe” (meaning dirty in Ethiopia’s official working language Amharic), lying on 5.3 hectares of land. The landfill in recent years has struggled to dispose of the city’s increasing waste. Opened five decades ago when Addis Ababa was a small city, it is currently the main landfill for the city of 4 million plus Ethiopians.
“The project will cost 118.5 million U.S. dollars to complete. It is to be fully covered by Ethiopia’s government and when complete will process 350,000 tonnes of solid waste annually,” said the Ethiopian minster.
He further said Reppie once commissioned will stop 46,494 tonnes of methane gas emission annually, helping achieve Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy (CRGE). CRGE envisaged Ethiopia achieving zero net carbon emission by 2025 while moving it from a developing nation to an environmentally friendly middle-income economy.
The project is being jointly constructed by British firm Cambridge Industries Limited and China National Electrical Engineering Company. Ethiopia plans to increase energy production capacity from the current 4,200 MW to about 17,300 MW by 2020 from hydro, wind, geothermal, solar and biomass sources.
Ethiopia hopes the series of energy projects it is currently undertaking will meet the demands of its fast growing economy and a rising population estimated to stand around 100 million currently.
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