AfrElec: Siemens Gamesa installs first turbine at Djibouti wind farm

Siemens Gamesa has installed the first turbine at the 59-MW Goubet wind farm in Djibouti

The Goubet facility is located in the Arta region close to Lake Assal and will feature 17 of Siemens 3.4-132 machines.

Siemens Gamesa won a contract in January 2020 to supply and built the country’s first wind farm, as well as providing a maintenance contract.

Siemens Gamesa will also provide maintenance to the wind farm, which is scheduled to be operational in mid-2021, for a minimum of 10 years, with the option to renew. The electricity generated will be sold by the consortium to Electricité de Djibouti, the national power generation company, for a period of 25 years.

A consortium of the Africa Finance Corporation, the Dutch development bank FMO, Climate Investor One and local company Great Horn Investment Holdings is developing the wind farm.

It is Siemens Gamesa’s first project in Africa to be led by an African investor.

In February, Siemens Gamesa delivered all the components for the 17 turbines, despite what it called the challenging conditions caused by coronavirus (COVID-19).

Siemens Gamesa said that the wind farm would almost double the country’s current installed power generation capacity.

The project will help reduce the cost of electricity, increase energy independence and decrease the country’s CO2 emissions.

Djibouti has the ambitious goal of reducing its CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030 through supplying of 100% of domestic energy demand out of renewables.

The project is covered by MIGA, the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.

Djibouti is also building the Ethiopia-Djibouti Second Power Interconnection project, involving 300 km of interconnector line, 170 km of transmission lines, and new construction or renovation of substations in the two countries.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved two grants worth $83.6mn for the project.

The funds comprise a $69.65mn grant to Ethiopia and a second grant of $13.93mn to Djibouti, both sourced from the African Development Fund, the AfDB’s concessional financing window.