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Ethiopia on track to becoming East Africa’s biggest exporter of renewable energy
Ethiopia plans to begin exporting renewable energy to a broader range of neighboring nations by 2018 as part of a cross-border effort to meet regional energy demand and limit increases in climate-changing emissions.
The Eastern African Power Pool (EAPP) initiative aims to create or expand clean energy transmission lines among about a dozen countries in the region. Ethiopia, which has plans to dramatically scale up its production and export of hydroelectricity, would take on a bigger role as a regional power exporter under the plan.
Currently, Ethiopia exports power to parts of Kenya, Sudan and Djibouti, but it has signed deals to send power to Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and Yemen as well, particularly from hydropower.
The new US$1.8 billion Gilgel Gibe 3 dam on the Omo River is set to begin power production as early as June.
Mekuria Lemma, head of strategy and investment at Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, said the regional power pool aims to boost economic growth in power importing nations, increase Ethiopia’s export earnings and bring grid electricity to millions without it.
The clean energy advances could help East Africa push for global cuts in climate-changing emissions at U.N.-led climate talks in Paris this December, said Negash Teklu, executive director of PHE (Population, Health and Environment) Ethiopia, an NGO consortium.
The region faces worsening impacts from climate change, including stronger droughts and more unpredictable planting seasons.
“Even though Ethiopia is not a big emitter it has been disproportionately affected by climate change,” Teklu said. With many East African nations, including Ethiopia, pushing ahead with renewable energy projects, countries in the region may have a stronger position to call for a goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050, Teklu said.
Ethiopia is home to nearly 100 million people, about a quarter of the total population of the Eastern Africa Power Pool region, which would stretch from Egypt in the north to Tanzania in the South, and from the Democratic Republic of Congo in the west to Djibouti in the east.
Just 20 percent of Ethiopians have access to the country’s electric grid – a percentage even lower in rural areas. Those without power often cut wood for cooking, increasing deforestation and hurting water availability.
