Reuters Staff
MILAN, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Enel’s green power unit leads a consortium selected as preferred bidder to build a 100 megawatt solar farm in Ethiopia, the Italian utility said on Monday, in its first foray in the country.
Enel, the biggest private renewable energy player in Africa, said the consortium would invest around $120 million in the project.
The consortium includes Ethiopian infrastructure company Orchid Business Group, it said.
“Ethiopia has all the potential to become a key market for Enel’s strategy in Africa,” Enel Green Power boss Antonio Cammisecra said.
Ethiopia, Africa’s most populous state after Nigeria, has an annual economic growth rate of around 10 percent but still has one of the lowest electrification rates on the continent.
Enel, which controls Spain’s Endesa, is keen to expand in Africa where it already operates in Zambia, Morocco, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa.
Reporting by Stephen Jewkes; editing by Jason Neely
Transition
Enel in line for 100MW PV array as Ethiopia seeks renewables
Enel has been lined up to build a 100MW PV project in Ethiopia, a nation the Italian giant said has the potential to be a key market in Africa.
Renewables unit Enel Green Power is part of a consortium to emerge as preferred bidder under a tender for a 20-year PPA with local utility Ethiopian Electric Power, under the umbrella of the government’s GTP 2 growth strategy.
The 100MW project will be built in Metehara, 200km east of the capital Addis Ababa, at a cost of about $120m.
The plant is due online in 2019 and will be among the first utility-scale solar facilities in the country, which hopes GTP 2 will help to spur 12GW of PV, wind, hydro and geothermal developments.
EGP head Antonio Cammisecra said:“Ethiopia has all the potential to become a key market for Enel’s strategy in Africa.
“The country has plenty of renewable sources that can generate energy at affordable rates thanks to modern green technologies.”
Cammisecra added: “Additionally, Ethiopia boasts a stable regulatory framework, based on tenders and PPAs, and steady energy demand growth, which is also sustained by a long-term electrification plan.”