Ethiopia: Tender for six solar power plants

The Ethiopian Ministry of Energy has issued tenders for the installation of six large-scale solar power plants. The plants will be developed under a public-private partnership framework and their construction is expected to cost around $795 million.

These infrastructures are planned to be located in the states of Afar, Somali, Oromia and Tigray with the Scaling Solar program of the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group.

The objective of this project is to accelerate the establishment of solar power plants by providing guarantees and financing to investors to reduce the risk of financing.

In October 2017, Italian energy company Enel was selected to construct a 100MW power plant in Metehara, central Ethiopia. In the same month, a tender was issued for the construction of two 125MW plants.

Ethiopia has around 4.3 GW of installed power generation capacity, of which 3,810 MW is in the form of hydro installations, 324 MW wind, 7 MW geothermal and 143 MW of diesel.

Approximately 25000 houses will have access to electricity upon completion of the project, according to officials.

In a statement last week, the World Bank announced $375 million in funding to support Ethiopia’s electrification program, which aims to drastically increase national access to power, which currently sits at only 34 percent.