Thursday, October 30, 2014

US company checking feasibility of 300MW of Ethiopian government PV projects

(Oct 29, 2014, PV-Tech))--Ethiopia could see construction of 300MW of PV across a number of government projects going ahead in just over six months, after the country’s public utility signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a US-headquartered developer.

The utility, Ethiopian Electric Power, signed the provisional agreement with Green Technology Africa, a company based in the US Commonwealth of Virginia. GTA said it had identified three regions in Ethiopia that have good potential for solar, based on localised high energy demand and good solar resources. Dessie, Komboltcha and Dire Dawa, the three regions, all have 115kV and 230kV transmission lines suitable for interconnection of plants.

Having travelled to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, to sign the MoU with EEP, GTA told PV Tech the company is now authorised to perform a full feasibility study of the three areas. According to GTA president Dereje Mesfin, it is likely the 300MW will consist of “several” projects.

Dire Dawa, he said, has between 220 hectares and 240 hectares of land suitable to host a potential 100MW of solar as well as a suitable 132kV transmission line. Komboltcha and Dessie both have a similar amount of land available and are close enough to transmission lines or substations to be suitable for interconnection, Mesfin said. Read more from PV-Tech »

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