What is distinctive is that its government wants to achieve as much as possible of this increase in power through green energy (hydro, wind, solar and geothermal).
Ethiopia intends to increase its power generation from 2000 megawatts to 10,000 MW. That goal is not unusual for a developing country. What is distinctive is that its government wants to achieve as much as possible of this increase in power through green energy (hydro, wind, solar and geothermal).
AFP reports on “Ethiopia spearheads green energy in sub-Saharan Africa”
Ethiopia and its Energy goals according to Dereje Derbew
” Ethiopia – landlocked country in the Horn of Africa.
Total area – 1.13 million square km.
Population – 85 million (2.57% growth per annum).
GDP at market value ~ 30 Billion USD (11% growth per annum)”
Energy Goals:
“Increase power generation capacity from 2,000 Megawatts to 10,000 MW
Increase grid access from 41 % to 75 % of the population
Double grid connections from 2 million to 4 mn households
Increase households supplied with at least one kind of modern, efficient and renewable energy source/technology from 16% to 80%
More than 1,500 towns and villages electrify/yr .
To disseminate more than 3 million solar lanterns and SHS 9 million efficient cook stove with the assistance of Development partners”
Wind and Solar Potential:
“The government of Ethiopia with the collaboration of Chinese government prepared solar and wind master plan for the whole country, which can be very useful to identify the gross amount and distribution condition of wind and solar energy resources, construction conditions, cost and other limiting factors of wind and solar power generation projects.
Based on the analysis of this master plan :
Ethiopia has a capacity of 1,350 Gigawatts of energy from wind.
Ethiopia has annual total solar energy reserve of 2.199 million Terawatt hours per annum .”
h/t Ministry of Water and Energy, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
An encouraging development on the whole. Two thoughts:
First, the mix among the various renewables will be an important consideration. Ethiopia and other East African countries like Kenya have suffered from highly unreliable hydropower (due to drought conditions, which have been worsened by climate change), so balancing hydro with other renewables, especially solar, will be important. Also, large-scale hydro development (as, for instance, with the Gibe dam), causes massive displacements of people and other problems.
Two, Ethiopia can learn a lot from the experience of Bangladesh, which is the developing world’s pioneer of solar home system use (2.4 million systems installed so far). Education and skill-building related to solar technology (especially for women) has been an important aspect of the Bangladeshi approach, so that at least 60,000 jobs have been created in distributing, installing, and maintaining SHS. Without a domestic capacity to maintain systems, far fewer jobs are created, and the systems may soon fall into disrepair.