DJIBOUTI (Halbeeg News) – Djibouti has opened its first wind farm, a 60-MW project near Lake Goubet that has raised the country’s overall electricity capacity by 50%.
The Red Sea Power (RSP) wind farm covers 387 hectares and is equipped with 17 Siemens turbines, each providing 3.4 MW of renewable energy. It has a 230-MVA substation and is linked to the grid by a five-kilometre overhead transmission line.
The USD-122 million project was Djibouti’s first large overseas investment in the energy industry. According to a recent announcement, it established the country’s first independent power producer (IPP) with an already secured long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with state-owned utility Electricité de Djibouti (EDD).
A consortium of investors including infrastructure solutions provider Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) as lead developer, Dutch development bank FMO, Climate Fund Managers (CFM), and Great Horn Investment Holding (GHIH), an investment firm owned by a unit of the Djibouti Ports & Free Zones Authority and Djibouti Sovereign Fund, completed the wind farm.
The partnership was set up in 2018 to provide equity bridge funding for the construction project, which began in January 2020. The company already has plans to install 45 MW of renewable energy capacity.
Aside from the wind farm, the same partners also opened a solar-powered desalination facility on the same day to provide drinking water to surrounding villages.
Djibouti was fully dependant on electricity generated from imported fossil fuels, as well as hydrogen generated power imported from Ethiopia, prior to the installation of its first wind farm.
It has a capacity of 123 MW installed, however only half of it is active owing to ageing plants.
The country possesses sufficient wind, solar, and geothermal resources to treble current capacity to at least 300 MW.
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