ADDIS ABABA: The United States, through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), has committed 1.55 million U.S. dollars in technical development for the Tulu Moye Geothermal Power Plant Project in Ethiopia.
“This new grant will enable project development and accelerate the schedule to design the 50-megawatt geothermal power plant,” the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia said in a statement issued on Thursday.
When completed, the project will be the first independent power project to generate power at a commercial scale and one of the largest geothermal power plants in Ethiopia, a country with substantial untapped geothermal resources that can provide significant baseload power, it was noted.
Ethiopian company TM Geothermal Operations PLC (TMGO) is developing the Tulu Moye project, which is approximately 100 kilometers southeast of Addis Ababa.
DFC’s technical development will provide funding for up to 1.55 million U.S. dollars to support detailed design work for the new power plant at an earlier stage in the project development process, enabling the Tulu Moye geothermal plant to deliver the first 50 megawatts of electricity to the Ethiopian power grid more quickly. After development is completed, DFC will evaluate additional financing for the implementation phase.
DFC’s technical development builds upon this recent progress and longer-term U.S. government support for the nation’s power sector, including by Power Africa, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
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