The Djiboutian Geothermal Energy Development Office has obtained a $27M grant to develop the Gale-Le-Koma geothermal project. The support came from Kuwait Development Fund.

The grant was approved a week ago. It will be utilized for the drilling of 10 wells. These will be eight production boreholes and two re-injection boreholes s well as a geothermal power plant with a capacity of 15MW by 2021.

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This agreement was signed mainly as a result of two weeks of intensive work between the KFD and ODDEG officials. The officials focused on the financial and technical evaluation of the Gale-Le-Koma geothermal project in Lake Assal.

Gale-Le-Koma geothermal project

The Gale-Le-Koma geothermal project was launched in October 2016 by the president of Djibouti Ismail Omar Guelleh. This project has been fully funded by the government and will be executed by the ODDEG. Since then the country has acquired two drilling rigs capable of drilling more than 2km deep and greatly strengthening the training of its human skills.

These results are in line with the expectations of a whole country. It is therefore possible to carry out a feasibility study for the construction of a geothermal power station with a capacity of 15MW in its first phase. This will reach 50MW in its final phase.

ODDEG also stated that the signing of the loan agreement to finance this project shows clearly how much in such a short time this courageous bet of the Djiboutian government was a real success.

Reports by the media stated that the Djiboutian president had announced plans to develop clean energy. The clean energy would be accessible to all citizens among the priorities of the energy road map in the country’s new five-year plan.

The President also said that the country’s energy independence will be based on renewable energies especially geothermal energy whose potential is estimated at more than 1,000MW.