The Corbetti Geothermal project is seeing new life with the signing of a new power purchase agreement (PPA). The Ethiopian government and Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) signed the agreement with developers including Reykjavik Geothermal Ltd, Iceland Drilling Co Ltd, the Berkeley Energy-managed African Renewable Energy Fund and InfraCo Africa. An implementation agreement was also signed.
The geothermal project will have a capacity of 150 MW.
According to InfraCo Africa, Corbetti Geothermal will be one of the first pair of privately developed, owned and operated geothermal IPPs in Ethiopia. Corbetti will be developed in two phases over a five-year period. The first phase will drill four to six exploratory wells , with support from the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility, to raise debt finance to drill a further four to seven wells and build a 50-MW power plant, which is expected to become operational in 2023.
The second phase will consist of an additional 100-MW power plant and facilities. Whilst the overall size of the project has been reduced; totaling 150-MW, the full Corbetti program will enable the GoE to meet 18% of its 2025 geothermal generation target.”