The Ethiopian Government has started operations of its 5.2 GW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile. The US$5bn river dam runs over almost 2 km and it can hold back up to 74 bcm of water. The project is expected to double the country’s generation capacity, bringing in over US$1bn in revenue annually, which is expected to help finance other infrastructure projects like a transmission network to cross the Red Sea to reach the Middle East. Ethiopia plans to increase the sale of electricity to neighboring countries such as Kenya and Djibouti.
The project faces critiques by Egypt and Sudan, which depend on the river’s flow for water availability for their respective populations. However, talks among the parties have failed to reach an agreement on the river’s management and now both countries accuse the project of breaching international law and have started to consider the issue as a national security concern.
The Blue Nile flows from Ethiopia to Sudan, where it joins the White Nile before flowing into Egypt as the Nile, and it supplies more than 80% of the water for the combined river system.
Interested in Power Plants?
Enerdata has developed a market research service to screen, monitor and analyse the development of power generation assets.
Power Plant Tracker offers an interactive database and a powerful search engine covering power plants worldwide – including both installed and planned capacities for renewables and fossil fuels.