Australian clean energy company Lotus Energy has won a contract to develop a 500MW solar complex in Ethiopia’s Tigray region
The solar facility is set to boost the infrastructure of the Ethiopian Effort Group which is active and operational in cement, automotive and steel production in the East African country.
The Tigray complex will be located in the north of Ethiopia and combine solar power, battery storage and waste-to-energy capacity. As reported in the Afrik21, the solar complex will include energy storage batteries and biomass power plant facilities. Additionally, a power grid will be built to connect the plants to industrial facilities, the source further added.
The work for the US$4.3bn facility is scheduled to start in September 2020.
A number of major solar projects are underway in Ethiopia with an aim to boost access to electricity. These include the Gad and Dicheto solar power plants in the Somali and Afar regions. The facilities are expected to have a capacity of 250MWp.
The two solar projects are part of the ‘Scaling Solar’ initiative by the World Bank through the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The aim is to encourage the companies to invest in solar energy, to supply energy to the national electricity grid of the country concerned and to rapidly implement electricity projects through public-private partnerships (PPPs).
