The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation is to inaugurate on December I the Adama I Wind Farm project built at a cost of 117 million dollars on the outskirts of Adama town, 98 km east of Addis Ababa. The Adama I wind power project has an installed generation capacity of 51 MW. The wind farm has a total of 34 towers each with a generating capacity of 1.5 MW. The total cost of the project is 117 million dollars, of which 85 percent was covered by a loan secured from the Chinese EXIM Bank. The Ethiopian government financed the remaining 15 percent. A Chinese firm called Hydro China carried out the mechanical work while CGOC, another Chinese firm, undertook the civil work.
The wind farm started generation with a full swing last June. A 132 KV transmission line 4.5 km long has been built. Another transmission line - 33 KV and seven km long - that connects the Adama wind power project with the national grid was built. The construction of the substation has been also finalised.
The Chinese firm Hydro China will undertake the construction of the wind farm with an installed generation capacity of 153 MW at a cost of 345 million dollars in partnership with another Chinese firm, CGCOC.
The second Adama wind farm project will have 102 units (turbines) each with a generation capacity of 1.5 MW. Officials of EEPCo said that they had identified a wind energy with a potential of generating 1200 MW of electric power around Adama, Eteya and Assela towns.
EEPCo has commissioned another wind power plant in Mekelle. The wind farm built on the outskirt of Mekelle, in a place called Ashegoda, has an installed generation capacity of 120 MW. Under the five - year Growth and Transformation Plan, Ethiopia plans to generate 890 MW from wind energy. Ethiopia has the potential to generate 60,000 MW from hydro, wind and geothermal energy sources. The country’s energy demand is growing at a rate of 34 percent.
