Chinese firm to construct 120-mW wind farm in Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA - China's Dongfang Electric Corporation will build a 120-megawatt (mW) wind farm in Ethiopia's Somali regional state, an Ethiopian official said Thursday.

In a statement sent to Xinhua, Bizuneh Tolcha, Public Relation and Communication Director at the Ethiopia Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE), said the Ethiopian government expects the project to be started by July.

"The wind farm project is expected to need 18 months to finish, cost about $257 million to construct with 85 percent of the funding coming from the China's Export-Import Bank and the rest from the Ethiopian government," he said.

According to the ministry, pre-construction work is already undergoing at the site of wind farm, which when completed will be the fourth wind farm in the East African nation.

The three other wind projects - the 120-mW Ashegoda wind farm located in northern Ethiopia, the 51-mW Adama I and 153-mW Adama II wind farm projects both in central Ethiopia - have been previously commissioned.

The Ethiopian government plans to increase its electricity generation capacity from the current 4,200 mW to about 17,300 mW by 2020 using hydro, wind, geothermal, biomass and solar energy.

Earlier this month, Ethiopia said its Genale Dawa III hydropower project is expected to start generating electricity in September. The 254-mW project is being built by China Gezhouba Group Company.