Ethiopia: Geothermal Energy Remains in the Shadow of Hydropower in Ethiopia 

Ethiopia's ambitious plans to become a carbon-neutral economy by 2025 have attracted headlines for the scale of the country's hydropower projects - but some experts hope that geothermal power will gradually get a look in too.

Hydroelectric dams currently under construction in the country have garnered international attention, especially the 1,870 megawatt (MW) Gibe III Dam and the 6,000 MW Grand Renaissance Dam.

But an often overlooked source of energy lies under the Great East Africa Rift Valley and the Afar Rift Valley, which pass through Ethiopia.

Best known for their scenic lakes and for both active and dormant volcanoes, the two valleys also harbour a largely untapped potential for geothermal electricity production, in which heat stored in the earth is tapped and used to drive turbines to create power.

Both Kenya and Ethiopia today tap some of that geothermal power, but scaling up production could help both countries move toward cleaner and more reliable sources of energy to meet growing demand.

Miskir Negash, a spokesperson for the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), says Ethiopia has the potential to generate at least 5,000 MW from geothermal energy.

"We plan to upgrade the Aluto Langano geothermal project, which currently produces 7 MW, ten-fold to 70 MW by 2015," Negash said.

The plant, which is located about 200 km (125 miles) south of the capital, Addis Ababa, is being built with $12 million of financial assistance from the Japanese government, and $13 million from the World Bank. The Ethiopian government is contributing $10 million to the costs.

TOO EXPENSIVE?

Nevertheless, geothermal power has so far failed to get much traction in the government's current energy production expansion plans. According to EEPCo, extracting the energy requires drilling down as far as 3 km into the earth's crust, which is both expensive and technologically difficult.

This, along with the dearth of qualified Ethiopian geothermal technicians, makes it more costly to produce electricity from geothermal sources than from hydro and wind - though geothermal power is cheaper than solar power in Ethiopia.