The Tulu Moye Geothermal Power Station, is a geothermal power station, under construction in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. When fully developed, the power station will be the first grid-ready independently developed geothermal power station in the country. The developers of this power plant, plan to expand it to 150 megawatts capacity, in the second phase, planned in the following five years.

Location

The power station is located near the ''Tulu Moye Volcano'', in the

Oromia Region Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa. It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benish ...

of Ethiopia, approximately , southeast of

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

, the capital and largest city in Ethiopia. The concession site comprises .

Overview

The power station will be developed in phases. The first phase involves drilling of 12 holes, two of which are ''injection holes'', while the remaining ten are ''production holes''. The next infrastructure is the construction of a steam collection and injection system. The addition of a "water-cooled condensing steam plant" comes after that. Other infrastructure includes a 230kV electric switchyard and a 230kV transmission line to the Koka-Wakena substation, about , outside of Addis Ababa, where the energy will be injected into the national grid.

Developers

The power station is under development by Tulu Moye Geothermal Operations Private Limited Company (TMGO), a special-purpose company registered in Ethiopia. In turn, TMGO is 100 percent owned by Tulu Moye SAS, a company registered in France, whose shareholding is illustrated in the table below.

Funding

The cost of construction of the first phase of this infrastructure project (the first 50 megawatts) is budgeted at US$260 million, borne by the developers; 25 percent as equity and 75 percent as debt.

Construction

In October 2019, the drilling contract was awarded to

Kenya Electricity Generating Company Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC abbreviated to KenGen, is a government enterprise in the Republic of Kenya charged with the production of electricity for the country. KenGen is the largest electric power producer in Kenya, generating ...

(Kengen), a company from neighboring

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. The drilling contract price is quoted as US$52 million for eight wells; at $6.5 million per geothermal well.

References

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External links

Tulu Moye, Ethiopia Geothermal Project

The Rise of East Africa As An Alternative Energy Mecca
Geothermal power stations in Ethiopia Renewable energy power stations in Ethiopia Oromia Region