EDITOR’S NOTE: Meanwhile, Addis Ababa and other cities use electric light in shifts as a result of Meles Zenawi’s tribalist regime policies of every thing to Tigray. The following is reported by the Woyanne-hijacked Ethiopian News Agency.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ENA) – Ethiopia and France on Thursday signed a financing agreement amounting to 210 million Euros for implementation of the Ashegoda Wind Power Project in Tigray State.
Chief Executive Officer of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), Mihret Debebe and ambassador of France to Ethiopia, Jean-Christophe Belliard signed the agreement.
With an installed capacity of 120 MW, along with annual energy production of 400 to 450 GWH, the Ashegoda wind harnessing project came as the first of its kind for Ethiopia.
It is believed to improve the country’s energy mix, thereby reducing the impact of possible hydrological risks.
Mihret said on the occasion that the fund will be used for implementation of the Project.
The project has an implementation schedule of 36 months from the date of commencement to bring the whole wind energy converter units into commercial operation. However, the first phase yielding 30MW capacity will be commissioned in 16 months after contract commencement.
Ambassador Jean-Christophe Belliard also said the project will contribute to ongoing efforts of Ethiopia to distribute electric power service in Africa.
The ambassador also said it will help to strengthen the age long friendship between the two countries.
9 thoughts on “Ethiopia, France sign 210 mln Euros loan for wind power”
You can’t even hide your ignorance about what it takes to harness wind energy; simply wind – which mekele is endowed with.
Please learn..
What about the “State of the art” grand stadium with a capacity of 35,000 to be built – of course in Tigrai! Why is everything geting built in Tigrai. May be Tigrai is a different country or something. Is it?
ይህ በግልጽ የሚያሳየው ወያኔ የቆመው ለትግራይ ብቻ እንደሆነ ነው:: ይህን የመሰለ አይን ያወጣ ዘረፋ በታሪክ ተደርጎ አያውቅም:: እነዚህን ዘራፊዎች ለማስወገድ ዘርፈ ብዙ ትግል አማራጭ የለውም. ግንቦት 7 ደግሞ ጥሩ መንገድ ይዟል ሁላችንም ከጎኑ ልንቆም ይገባል
—-ayayazun ayteh tchibtown kemaw new yemilew lelaw ende ktel berehab iyergefe yalewn hizb hiywot kemadan angebgabi sira yilk ye weyane zeregna budin fitulay yetedekenewn yesebhawi mebt regetana yezer matsdat kis aykere mehonun bemeredatu gifun bemulu le Tigray hizb tekorkuro yefetsemew lemasmeselna ye mecheresha mishig lemamechachet yemata stota mhonu sihon haylegna nefas beakababiw yalemenoru gin ye axum hawltachen eske zare yale chigr komo ye dro jegnochin bayebet edmew bandochn eyetazebe new
I will try to explain why such enormous and expensive projects are being implemented in Tigray. According to these sick fanatic and jackass followers of the Diablo from Adwa, Tigray used to be the most advanced nation in the entire sub-Saharan region with advanced civilization that showed sophisticated engineering and science. They tell us to look at the remains in Aksum (Axum) of the stelae and all that. Then, they say, these marauder Amharas crawled out of some woodwork and destroyed that advanced civilization the same way the Huns and Goths destroyed Rome. Amharas were followed by Ahmed Garowe (Gragn) and pastoralists Oromos. That is what they believe and tell you. They have been fighting to restore their glory for centuries, they say. Finally after waging a ruthless battle against the Amharas that lasted for more than 16 years, they say, they have beaten the enemy, the main cause of their humiliation and suffering. They really believe in that they are the ones who brought down the Amharas and Derg single-handedly. That is the main source of their unheard of arrogance and beastly savagery. They have left those barren and rocky hills of their joint and reached the lush green hills and meadows of Gojam, Gondar, Shewa, Jimma, Sidamo, Hararghe, Wollega, Illu Aba Bora, Arsi and Bale-Goba. They have armed themselves to their teeth. I am telling you!! They will not leave or give up their newly-found luxury (empire). They will not hesitate to kill on sight and if overwhelmed also die. That is why they harass even the softest critics, kidnap those outspoken and throw others in jail with out any due process indefinitely. Just look at what they did to Birtukan. First, she was pardoned after concerned elderly group intervened. She acknowledged such ingratiating effort by the elderly group during one of her trips overseas. Then, the Diablo from Adwa reversed his decision and send her back to prison. For life!!! Now come one folks. Just stay with me and think. What kind of a person sends a fellow citizen to life in prison because she expressed her gratitude to a group who were part of the process for her original release from prison? I will try to be a reader of a sick mind. This guy is not normal. He has a twisted mind like one of those pedophiles and serial killers. From now on, I have decided to call this devil hoodlum Ted Bundy!!! My heart goes out to Birtukan and all others who are languishing in prison. I am not a lawyer but I call upon all those able countrymen and women qualified lawyers who live with us here abroad to file a criminal lawsuit against Aduwite Ted Bundy at any federal courts here in the USA and at The Hague. From what I read on this and other websites, there are a lot of criminal acts perpetrated by Mr. ‘Ted Bundy’. If the courts deny the lawsuit, we should keep trying again and again. Some day, someone will listen just like they did about Charles Taylor and those Rwandan Hutus. I will like to see him answer to the charges during my lifetime. I promise you to go down to México and find him the most delicious ‘beles’ he ever had. In the meantime, I will keep crying to God for Birtukan. She has done nothing wrong to deserve imprisonment to life. Nothing!!!
I personaly do not care which part of the country each big project are conduted provided that no hidden future ajendas. But the point we have been promissed severall inspiring big investments but not either started yet or left as deamed. If the purpose is only to get attention people will learn from all past bluffings and would care less no mater is told. So, we should be real.
The question must be, is this location the best place to start with? No. Absolutely not.
The so called Tekeze Hydroelectric power became their first priority the day after they took power through coup deta. It was planned to be finalised with in two years and cost 3.5 billion birr.
It is 9 years now; still the project is not finished. The best way to finish it is just abandoned it. It is a worthless and mistake to spend so much resources on it. In the mean time 500 million birr additional fund was injected. According to the Chinese company responsible for building the dam, it will serve only about 20 years with no guarantee in year basis electricity with its full capacity.
The Ethiopian experts also said about from the start but all and every thing the nation has is in their hand and they ignored every one and decided by themselves while Ethiopians have to pay the cost.
Lets take the Blue Nile; It has 1200 permanent and more than 2000 seasonal tributaries. There are hundreds rivers let say in Gojam bigger than Tekeze and with good location to produce and distribute electricity all over the country. Lake Tana has 44 Tributaries; some of them are bigger than Tekeze. Semien mountain/wollo is the source and existence of Tekeze. During summer time, it becomes less than a small stream hundreds of meters down to the dead valley.
We like all Ethiopians get enough energy to make their life easy and protect our forests. It is a human right issue and politics and bad judgments need to be out of this. To get energy the best and easy way all over the country principle has to take its place. If this wind thing is working in Tigry, it is good. But we know it will not work. There are other suitable locations for wind energy such as Semien Mountain and elsewhere. First thing and easy way must be first.
But they don’t listen. They are treating Tigry apart from the rest of Ethiopia. Tigry for them is a mother while Ethiopia is the worst stepmother, Tigry is a child while the rest of Ethiopia as step child to the worst step mother or father. They think they have duties to do something for Tigry at the cost of the rest of Ethiopia even the intended project is not working. This wind thing in Tigry will be another Tekeze hydroelectric power project, ended up in vein, leaving Ethiopia with financial difficulty.
God save Ethiopia, Please.
Hi everyone;
I am an electrical engineer interested in Energy production technology and I was following the case since 2006, time when for 1st time I saw published the intension of Wayane on such totally wrong proyect.
If you see the GTZ document published in August 2006 under the title of “Feasibility Study for Wind-park development in Ethiopia and Capacity Building – Ashegoda Wind Park site final report” you can understand the selfish nature of Wayane government.
On this document, you can see the following problems:
1. As per some previous year 2006 data from Addis Ababa university and other recent document published in 2007 by branch of United Nation called SWERA, the Tigray wind resource power is less compared to many others region like Naziret, Addis Ababa, Awash, Gonder, Dire-dawa, Bale, … etc.
2. From Page 5 of that document, under section 1.3 about “Wind Resource Assessment” it is clearly indicated that the site resource study was conducted in less than one year. The first Anemometer station was erected in January 2005, the second one in mid-September 2005. The report was given in August 2006. Since wind resource follow the probabilistic nature, the Ashegoda Wind Park site assessment will be a will be known as bad practice to conduct big investments. Reliable wind park investments require site study of more than five years to insure the continuity of production and recovery of the investments and get profit within 20 year of investment life.
3. On page 5 under section 1,2 about “Site description Ashegoda” is located 2400m above the sea level. At this level the air density is low, which is directly proportional to the energy production. Even so the wind speed is greater from some places, just looking the air density they have to evaluate the energy production through out the park life time (generally 20 years). Therefore, before constructing the production plant should be studied the energy production by installing pilot plant, which is not done in Tigray.
4. As stated on page 14 under some barrier of the project, you can read and understand “…the extreme time pressure from the Ethiopian Authorities … for project construction (twelve months) in 2007. It is known that the site has no road and others infrastructure to transport selected type of wind turbine. Also the electric connection 230kV transportation line needs implementation.
Now the project is planed for 36 month which should be as result of the pressure from the Franch governiment side.
5. The Energy production assessment was conducted by using the technology of GAMESA G58 (Spanish company) and VESTAS V52 (Danish company) and ENERCON E53 (Indian sited company). When the bid was published in year 2007, as stated on page 14, “several manufacturers have been requested for an EoI by the consultant, except the Enercon (Indian sited company) others (including the two more respected and capable companies) were unwilling to participate in the bid.
On this regard, I am very surprised about why this French company and specialy the franch governiment on giving loan are interested in this kind wrong investiment. It is known that this French company is new in the field and less competent compared with the two mentioned European companies.
6. Also I am surprised with one Official of Wayane government when he accepted the better wind power availability at Naziret Area but he tried to convince people by saying that the top management decided by the Ashegoda Wind Park because in Naziret there is communication antenna. It is too absurd answer because today for every problem there are many technical solutions. They know that if they visit Europe they can see in many places the closeness-location of wind turbines and communication antennas.
7. This park is known as “the African biggest Wind Park”. If it became successful, it will be true because the wind farm is more typical application of non-equator area located countries (e.g. Germany) while the sun technology e.g. Photovoltaic power plant is typically for country located in equator area like Ethiopia. Therefore, I believe that for Ethiopia it is more advisable to invest in sun power plant compared in to wind park.
Hence, this project like many others Wayane’s project will be failed projects that will pass as a loan to be paid by future Ethiopian generations.
Also, since weeks ago I was trying to search for why so long time energy shortage in Ethiopian homes. As it is known I did not get enough data to evaluate the case but I strongly believe that this long time energy shortage schedule is done just to simulate the shortage of energy at wide-nation level and get this 210 million Euros for the implementation of this absurd project.
it should be remembered that the Wayane government plan was to get wind power to Tigray in 2007 within one year through a loan from African Development Bank. It looks that there was difficulty to get the expect loan but they have got from Franch government. I think the French government gives this loan because the construction is done by the French company.
Anyway, this absurd loan will be passed to future Ethiopian generation. I am worried of this because I have son and this give me the idea that Ethiopian bad situation will continue being bad by the contributions of this Wayane government,
By Alemayehu
Maryland, USA
Hi everyone,
I was following the case since 2006, time when for 1st time I saw published the intension of Wayane on such totally wrong project.
If you see the GTZ document published in August 2006 under the title of “Feasibility Study for Wind-park development in Ethiopia and Capacity Building – Ashegoda Wind Park site final report” you can understand the selfish nature of Wayane government.
On this document, you can see the following problems:
1. As per some previous year 2006 data from Addis Ababa university and other recent document published in 2007 by branch of United Nation called SWERA, the Tigray wind resource power is less compared to many others region like Nazret, Addis Ababa, Awash, Gonder, Dire-dawa, Bale, etc.
2. From Page 5 of that document, under section 1.3 about “Wind Resource Assessment” it is clearly indicated that the site resource study was conducted in less than one year. The first Anemometer station was erected in January 2005, the second one in mid-September 2005. The report was given in August 2006. Since wind resource follow the probabilistic nature, the Ashegoda Wind Park site assessment will be a will be known as bad practice to conduct big investments. Reliable wind park investments require site study of more than five years to insure the continuity of production and recovery of the investments and get profit within 20 year of investment life.
3. On page 5 under section 1,2 about “Site description Ashegoda” is located 2400m above the sea level. At this level the air density is low, which is directly proportional to the energy production. Even so the wind speed is greater from some places, just looking the air density they have to evaluate the energy production through out the park life time (generally 20 years). Therefore, before constructing the production plant should be studied the energy production by installing pilot plant, which is not done in Tigray.
4. As stated on page 14 under some barrier of the project, you can read and understand “…the extreme time pressure from the Ethiopian Authorities … for project construction (twelve months) in 2007. It is known that the site has no road and others infrastructure to transport selected type of wind turbine. Also the electric connection 230kV transportation line needs implementation.
Now the project is planed for 36 month which should be as result of the pressure from the Franch governiment side.
5. The Energy production assessment was conducted by using the technology of GAMESA G58 (Spanish company) and VESTAS V52 (Danish company) and ENERCON E53 (Indian sited company). When the bid was published in year 2007, as stated on page 14, “several manufacturers have been requested for an EoI by the consultant, except the Enercon (Indian sited company) others (including the two more respected and capable companies) were unwilling to participate in the bid.
On this regard, I am very surprised about why this French company and specialy the franch governiment on giving loan are interested in this kind wrong investiment. It is known that this French company is new in the field and less competent compared with the two mentioned European companies.
6. Also I am surprised with one Official of Wayane government when he accepted the better wind power availability at Naziret Area but he tried to convince people by saying that the top management decided by the Ashegoda Wind Park because in Naziret there is communication antenna. It is too absurd answer because today for every problem there are many technical solutions. They know that if they visit Europe they can see in many places the closeness-location of wind turbines and communication antennas.
7. This park is known as “the African biggest Wind Park”. If it became successful, it will be true because the wind farm is more typical application of non-equator area located countries (e.g. Germany) while the sun technology e.g. Photovoltaic power plant is typically for country located in equator area like Ethiopia. Therefore, I believe that for Ethiopia it is more advisable to invest in sun power plant compared in to wind park.
Hence, this project like many others Wayane’s project will be failed projects that will pass as a loan to be paid by future Ethiopian generations.
Also, since weeks ago I was trying to search for why so long time energy shortage in Ethiopian homes. As it is known I did not get enough data to evaluate the case but I strongly believe that this long time energy shortage schedule is done just to simulate the shortage of energy at wide-nation level and get this 210 million Euros for the implementation of this absurd project.
it should be remembered that the Wayane government plan was to get wind power to Tigray in 2007 within one year through a loan from African Development Bank. It looks that there was difficulty to get the expect loan but they have got from French government. I think the French government gives this loan because the construction is done by the French company.
Anyway, this absurd loan will be passed to future Ethiopian generation. I am worried of this because I have son and this give me the idea that Ethiopian bad situation will continue being bad by the contributions of this Wayane government,
By Alemayehu