Ethiopia - Tulu Moye Geothermal Resource Development Development

The project falls under Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA)’s Green Baseload area of intervention as geothermal is one of the most reliable (high load factor) renewable energy sources in Eastern Africa, with over 15,000 MWe of generation potential. The project will be the first large-scale private sector-driven geothermal development in Africa and the first privately financed IPP in Ethiopia (“Tulu Moye”). The project involves geothermal resource development, construction, commissioning, and operation of a 50 MW power plant in Ethiopia under a build own operate transfer (“BOOT”) structure, to be developed for a further 100MW as the second phase. The first phase of the project is intended to be implemented in two sub-sets of 25MW each for geothermal resource development purposes only. The sub-sets arrangement is due to the capital intensity of the drilling phase, which is a huge burden for the equity investors and a lack of risk appetite from debt financiers to support the exploration drilling activities.