GRMF announces results of 3rd application round for geothermal grants, East Africa
Start of Drilling campaign, Rwanda (source: Twitter/ Silas Lwakabamba)
Alexander Richter
22 Dec 2015
The African Union's Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF) announces the results of the 3rd application round for geothermal drilling and exploration grants. Successful projects in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Union of Comoros and Rwanda will receive a total of $36.7 million.
In a release today, the African Union and the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility announced the results of the evaluation of full applications submitted to the GRMF 3rd Application Round (3rd AR). At the same time, the GRMF 4th Application Round has been approved. The official kick-off event is scheduled to take place in May 2016 – announcement of event’s date and detailed program will be published by newsletter and website.
The 3rd AR started on 31st October 2014 after the pre-qualification workshop held as side-event to the ARGeo-C5 conference in Arusha, Tanzania. On 8th January 2015 – the submission deadline of the pre-qualification phase, sixteen (16) Expressions of Interest (EoI) (10 surface studies and 6 drilling programmes) were formally accepted.
As communicated in a news item on 1 October, on 20th July 2015, of the 18 project represented in the pre-bidding workshop, 14 applications were submitted for GRMF financial support. These 14 applications (7 Surface Studies and 7 Drilling Programmes) were submitted by ten (10) entities (6 public and 4 private) from seven – out of the eleven – GRMF countries (Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda).
GRMF now announces that 7 projects qualified for grant award in the GRMF 3rd AR (2 Surface Studies and 5 Drilling Programmes).
The qualified projects are:
| No | Name of Bidder | Country of Bidder | Project Name | Activity |
| 1. | Cluff Geothermal Ltd | Ethiopia | Fantale | Drilling Programme |
| 2. | L’Office Djiboutien de développement de l’Energie Géothermique ODDEG | Djibouti | Arta | Surface Study |
| 3. | Geothermal Development Company Ltd (GDC) | Kenya | Paka | Drilling Programme |
| 4. | GDC | Kenya | Korosi | Drilling Programme |
| 5. | Cluff Geothermal Ltd | Ethiopia | Butajira | Surface Study |
| 6. | Bureau Géologique des Comores, Government of Comoros | Union of Comoros | Karthala | Drilling Programme |
| 7. | Energy Development Corporation Ltd | Rwanda | Kinigi | Drilling Programme |
The cumulative GRMF financial support – including potential continuation premium, for all qualified applications of the 3rd AR amounts to approximately $36.7 million. All projects that submitted applications will receive qualification/ rejection letters in the upcoming week.
Source: GRMF
