The French Development Agency (AFD) has approved US $9m grant that will be directed towards the development of the Tendaho geothermal project.
A signing ceremony of the grant agreement took place at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation between Admasu Nebebe, Ethiopian State Minister of Finance and Economic Cooperation, Frederic Bontems, Ambassador of France to Ethiopia and Ignace Monkam-Daverat, the AFD regional manager in Addis Ababa.
The investment grant constitutes an additional funding to this project, which already benefited from a US $10m concessional loan from AFD and a total of US $8 m from previous European Union Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund (EU-AITF) grants.
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Tendaho geothermal project
The geothermal project is being implemented by Ethiopian Electric Power, in coordination with Geological Survey of Ethiopia. The financing will enable to complete the drilling activities planned as part of the geothermal exploration and development effort in the Afar region.
Admasu Nebebe said developing the geothermal project aims at being a source that is reliable and low carbon, and thereby improve its capacity for climate change adaptation.
The activities will focus on developing a shallow reservoir in Tendaho in order to allow a sustainable exploitation with a capacity of an estimated 10MW, and on exploiting a deep reservoir by drilling wells at great depth.
