Ethiopia will Saturday launch what it claims to be Africa’s largest wind farm for power generation at Ashegoda, 18 km from Mekelle, the northern Tigray regional capital.
Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) said here Friday that the wind farm has a power generating capacity of 120MW and will produce about 400 million KWh a year.
The Ashegoda project, completed on schedule within 36 months, included the construction of access and maintenance roads for future operations and a new sub-station which interfaces with the EEPCo grid system.
“All units have now been constructed and are already providing energy to the national grid,” said the power firm.
The project’s feasibility study was carried out seven years ago before a French company, Vergnet Groupe, was awarded the contract in October 2008.
It was jointly financed by BNP Paribas of France, the French Development Agency (ADF) and EEPCo.
Ethiopia has two farms at Adama, about 100 km south of here, generating 51 MW each for distribution in Oromia Regional State. The first of these was inaugurated in October 2011 and the second came on stream in 2012.
