Ethiopia, Icelander firm negotiate geothermal power generation

The Ethiopian government and Reykjavik, a joint venture of U.S.-Icelandic geothermal development company, are negotiating on a detailed power purchase agreement to generate geothermal energy, an Ethiopian spokesperson has said.

"The negotiation is expected to be finalized by December 2014," Bizuneh Tolcha, spokesperson for the Ministry of Water, Energy and Irrigation, told The Anadolu Agency on Saturday.

Reykjavik will generate the geothermal power in Ethiopia's rift valley region, 200 kilometers south of Addis Ababa and supply the power to the national grid.

The negotiation focuses on the mode of power provision and sell.

"So far the construction of access roads and camps is undertaken in the area, where the geothermal plant will be built," Tolcha said.

The project, which will be undertaken in two phases within eight to 10 years, is expected to generate 20 megawatts in 2016 and 500 megawatts in 2018, he said.

The two sides had agreed to generate 1000 megawatt geothermal energy with an estimated $4 billion.

Ethiopia has the potentials to generate more than 7,000 megawatt geothermal energy.