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Ethiopia to relaunch Aluto Langano geothermal plant with 75 MW project

Ethiopia to relaunch Aluto Langano geothermal plant with 75 MW project Well on site of Aluto Langano geothermal plant, Ethiopia (source: ThinkGeoEnergy, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 25 May 2017

The government of Ethiopia has announced it will launch a 75 MW geothermal project at Aluto Langano, with up to $126 million in funding from the World Bank.

Ethiopia has been the other Eastern African country with geothermal production. But with the 8 MW geothermal plant at Aluto-Langano having not operated in years, there are now good news reported.

The country is now preparing to launch a 75-MW Aluto Langano Geothermal project, as reported by the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE) today.

According to a statement by Bizuneh Tolcha, Communications Director of MoWIE, the World Bank has already provided financial assistance of about $126 million.

“Thirteen percent of Ethiopia’s territory is located within the rift valley, with the country unable to produce a single MW of energy at the moment. We hope this project changes that picture,” it said.

Ethiopia has the longest section of the 7,000-km East African Rift Valley, which boasts an estimated geothermal potential of 10,000 megawatts (MW), but the country has been unable to match neighboring Kenya’s installed geothermal power capacity of about 630 MW.

A separate project, the Corbetti project by Corbetti Geothermal supported by the U.S. government that aims to produce 1,000-MW geothermal energy has yet to start operations beset by technical, legal and financial issues.

Source: XinhuaNet