With commissioning of Ethiopia’s second biggest electricity project, 1870 Megawatts (MW) Gilgil Gibe III hydroelectric dam in the coming July, the country is set to double its current electric hydropower production.
The country has completed 89 percent of Gibe III hydropower project, according to Miskir Negash, external communications director at Ethiopian Electric power, (EEP) the country’s public state utility firm. Currently Ethiopia is generating some 2000 MW of electricity from hydropower stations.”The Project which lies in southwestern Ethiopia, on Omo River a major tributary to Lake Turkana has 10 turine units each generating 187 MW,” he said.
While the project is expected to boost the country’s electricity output, and generate electricity export revenue, it’s however been opposed by international environmentalists. They contend that it poses dangers to the world’s largest desert lake and livelihoods of tribal people in south western Ethiopia and northern Kenya.
Ethiopia currently has its biggest hydro project at Blue Nile River, 40 kms from the Sudanese border, with an electricity production capacity of 6,000 MW, and is currently 40 percent complete.
The project dubbed Africa’s largest so far, has however not been without it’s controversies, with upstream countries notably Egypt suspicious of the project’s impact on its only river water source.
Negash also revealed that Ethiopia’s first ever Waste-To-Energy facility, the 50 MW Repi (Koshe) site in Addis Ababa is 58 percent complete.
He further surmised that Ethiopia is also embarking on wind projects with the 153 MW Adama II wind power project 82 percent complete. An earlier 51 MW Adama I wind power project was finished two years ago and is currently operational.
[NewBusinessEthiopia]
