Africa’s first waste-to-energy facility to launch soon
June 22, 2017
Construction of the Reppie Waste-to-Energy facility, the first of its kind in Africa, is set to be completed in September 2017, providing alternative energy generation.
Located at Koshe landfill site in Addis Ababa, the facility will process 1,400 tons of municipal waste per day and produce 185 GWHr of electricity annually, that will be exported to the Ethiopian national grid. This will be sufficient to power 25% of Addis Ababa's households.
To sustainably supply the feedstock for the facility, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation is currently working in collaboration with the Addis Ababa’s City Municipality to ensure waste collection is streamlined. The Facility will eliminate over 80% of the waste delivered to it, whilst at the same time maximizing energy recovery in order to deliver much-needed renewable power to the surrounding City.
Ethiopia has experienced rapid economic growth in recent years with GDP growth averaging 10.9% between 2004 and 2016. Given the fact that it is set to become a middle-income country by 2025, the plant is expected to mitigate Ethiopia’s ever-increasing waste disposal due to the rise in income which will likely create a parallel increase in waste generation and increased urbanization.
The plant is just one facet of Ethiopia’s seven-year-old Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy, which aims for Ethiopia to become middle-income by 2025 while limiting its carbon footprint to less than 2010 levels by 2030.
The Waste-to-Energy facility complies with and applies to EU’s emissions standards.
Development, design and construction of the project is conducted by a consortium comprising of Cambridge Industries Ltd and its partner China National Electric Engineering Co (CNEEC).