The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCO) is set to start construction of six wind power projects and one Geo Thermal Power Plant with a capacity of generating 1,015 Mega Watts (MW) power in the current fiscal year, allocating billions of birr.

The project includes the 300 MW Ayisha Wind Farm located in the Eastern part of the country, near the border with Djibouti, the 100 MW Debre Birhan Wind Farm situated about 120 kms north of Addis Ababa, the 100 MW Assela Wind Power Project, 125 km South East of Addis, and the 153 MW Adama II Wind Power Project.

The 42 MW Mesebo Harena Wind Farm in Tigray Regional State near Mekelle, and the 250 MW Galema I Wind Power Project are also among the projects the corporation aims to launch in the current budget year. The other project is the Aluto Langano Geo Thermal Project that has a capacity to generate 70 MW.

Meanwhile EEPCo has made operational 30 MW power from the 120 MW Ashegoda Wind Power Plant that is under construction by the French company Vergniet S.E..

The 51 MW Adama I wind farm project work, located about 95 km south east of Addis Ababa was started in mid July 2011 with 15 MW expected to be operational by December 2011.

It is currently being done by a Chinese joint venture CGCOC and Hydro China while the consultancy services are undertaken by the Addis Ababa University Technology faculty. It is financed through a 157 million dollar loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM).

The projects are part of the corporation’s plans to increase the country’s electric power generation capacity from the current 2000 MW to about 10 thousand MW by the end of 2015, as part of the Ethiopian government’s aim to reach a middle income economy by then.

The corporation also plans to generate power from ethanol, a sugar byproduct. Among its plans to generate are 6 MW from Finchaa Sugar Factory, 20 MW from Wonji Sugar Factory both in Oromia Regional State, and 78 MW from Tendaho Sugar Factory in Afar Regional State.

CapitalEthiopia