Italian construction firm, Salini Impregilo said it has signed an agreement to construct a new hydroelectric power plant in Ethiopia worth US$3b. The mega development project, dubbed the Koysha Dam, will have an installed capacity of 2,200 MW and will be constructed in the south of Ethiopia on the lower bank of Gibe River.
The project is composed of a 170-m-high roller compacted concrete (RCC) dam and the reservoir has a volume is 6000 million cubic metres. It will have an annual power generation capacity of 6,460GWh. This new contract agreement between Ethiopia and the Italian firm barely comes after the country secured a finance grant with an Italian credit firm, Servizi Assicuative del Commerce Estero (SACE), to finance the project.
Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, has said that the country’s desire to tap into several rivers for power generation is part of a plan to boost manufacturing and industrialisation in the country and transform its agrarian economy. The project, together with GIBE III which started operations recently and the Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD), will enable Ethiopia to become Africa’s leader in energy production and also make their vision a reality of becoming the hub for the renewable energy in the continent.
Salini Impregilo is a dynamic Italian company specialising in construction of major projects and operating in over 50 countries.
