Tulu Moye Geothermal wins $10m co-financing GRMF grant from African Union

Well completion, Tulu Moye, Ethiopia (source: TMGO)

Alexander Richter 10 Dec 2020

The African Union Commission (AUC) through its Department of Infrastructure & Energy and TM Geothermal Energy PLC (TMGO) signed a GRMF Grant Contract for the Tulu Moye Drilling Programme. 

The Agreement was signed by the AUC Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, H.E. Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, and the CEO of TMGO Mr. Darrell Boyd. The AUC’s Project Manager for the GRMF, Mr. Atef Marzouk, and the Principal Energy Expert, Mr. Sylvain Degolmal, congratulate TMGO to this achievement:

“We would like to congratulate Tulu Moye Geothermal Energy PLC (TMGO) for achieving this milestone. Furthermore, AUC as the project executing agency for GRMF, plays the key role in the harmonization and coordination of geothermal energy exploration and development in East Africa. Therefore, seeing more drilling as the one going on actually in Tulu Moye, Ethiopia is very encouraging. AUC and its partners KfW and FCDO (former DFID), which are GRMF donors, would like to reiterate their commitment to fund bankable geothermal projects with respect to GRMF Financial scheme across East Africa region. We are confident that TMGO with this grant will take the project to the next stage closer to power generation.”

The total grant amounts to USD 9,990,279 for co-financing the total cost estimated to USD 26.2 million for the exploration Drilling Programme.

The Tulu Moye Drilling Programme is located about 140 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa in the Oromia Regional State, with Lake Koka to the north and Lake Ziway to the south. Three wells are being funded to explore the Gnaro lava field. The Drilling Programme is a continuation of a Surface Study, which received funding within the second GRMF application round.

“Ethiopia’s geothermal energy capacity is estimated to be in excess of 10GW. Only a fraction of this has been developed and even less has attracted private investors, due to the complexities and risks associated with developing a geothermal field. Extensive exploration needs to be completed through the drilling of wells up to 2500km deep which is capital intensive and requires advanced technology. For the private sector, limited public funding is available during the early stages of developing a geothermal field, thus, the cost of the drilling campaign to validate the resource is primarily borne by the project sponsor. The rigorous grant application process validates the work of TMGO in developing the Tulu Moye geothermal field to date and the capital injection from the grant improves the commercial viability of the project for their project sponsors Meridiam & Reykjavik Geothermal. TMGO’s drilling campaign is now fully underway thanks to the support of GRMF and the Team looks forward to completing a successful exploration drilling campaign in Q1 2021.” – Darrell Boyd, CEO of TMGO

Currently, the sixth application round of the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility is in progress. Further information on this can be found here.

Source: Press release by email