Friday, October 25, 2013
Ethiopia to get $4 billion investment for leap into geothermal power
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia has signed a preliminary agreement with a U.S.-Icelandic firm for a $4 billion private sector investment intended to tap its vast geothermal power resources and help it become a major exporter of energy for East Africa.
Reykjavik Geothermal, whose Icelandic geothermal expertise is backed by U.S. investors, signed a deal with Ethiopia on Wednesday to construct a 1,000 MW geothermal power plant, Africa's largest, in the volcanically active Rift Valley.
When complete, the project will be Ethiopia's biggest foreign direct investment, run by its first privately owned utility. In an economy traditionally dominated by state spending, the government has suggested that the nascent sector could be a model for increased private investment.
"This is an epic moment for all of us ... bringing Ethiopia to the forefront of geothermal development," said Reykjavik Geothermal CEO Gudmundur Thoroddsson, who signed the deal with Mihret Debebe, his counterpart at the state-run Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCO), in Addis Ababa.
Ethiopia currently suffers frequent blackouts because of a lack of power. But it is due to boost its generating capacity from 2,000 MW to 10,000 MW within the next three years, much of it coming from the 6,000 MW Grand Renaissance Dam under construction on the Nile.
Experts put its hydropower potential at around 45,000 MW and its geothermal potential at 5,000 MW, but Reykjavik says the accessible geothermal resources could be nearer 15,000 MW.
"For 50 years, everyone has known that there was potential, but the initial risk and initial cost of developing geothermal is high," said Reykjavik Geothermal managing director Thorleifur Finsson.
"After we managed to develop many sites in Asia and America, eyes have been opened that there is a possibility and ... today's technology has minimized that financial risk," he said. "There is huge potential."
PRIVATE FINANCE
Power will be extracted from under the volcanic Corbetti Caldera crater by pumping water to a depth of more than 1,000 meters to be superheated in geological strata where the temperature is around 350 degrees Celsius (660 Fahrenheit).
Finsson said it was envisaged that the first 500 MW of power from the Corbetti Caldera would come onstream in 2018, and the second 500 MW by 2021, but that finance had so far only been committed for a first phase of exploration drilling.
Depending on the results of this, he said he expected "financial close at around end of December 2014 or beginning of 2015". He said the power purchase agreement was expected to commit EEPCO to buy the station's output for 25 years.
Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country, has also been one of the continent's fastest growing economies, with 9.7 percent growth in fiscal 2012/13.
However, much of this is the result of heavy public infrastructure spending; the International Monetary Fund has said balance of payments pressures and the difficulties faced by the private sector - whose share of Ethiopia's GDP is the sixth lowest in the world - raise doubts about its growth model.
At the unveiling of the geothermal project in New York last month, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, in office for just over a year, suggested this might have to change if Ethiopia was to meet its expanding power generation ambitions.
"My vision is that over the next 30 years, we will need to harness as much as 80,000 MW of hydro, geothermal, wind and solar power, not just for Ethiopia, but for our neighboring countries as well ...
"We will need to partner with the private sector to bring in significant private investment going forward. From that perspective, this 1,000 MW project with RG is not that large - but it's a great start. What Africa needs now is not just aid, but trade and investment."
(Additional reporting and editing by Kevin Liffey)
Government bans citizens from travelling abroad for work
Ethiopia’s government has temporarily banned its citizens from travelling abroad to look for work, the state-run Erta news agency reports.
The foreign ministry was quoted as saying countless Ethiopians had lost their lives or undergone untold physical and psychological trauma because of illegal human trafficking.
The decision was meant to “safeguard the well-being of citizens”, it added.
The travel ban will remain in place until a “lasting solution” is found.
The ministry said the government had taken various measures to limit the suffering of its citizens, including setting up a national council and a taskforce to educate them.
But those measures had not been able to address the problem sufficiently, it added.
Employment agencies will also be barred from facilitating travel abroad.
The scarcity of work opportunities is a major factor fuelling emigration from Ethiopia, which has Africa’s second largest population. Youth unemployment is officially estimated at more than 50%.
Human rights activists also say a significant number of those classified as economic migrants flee the country because of political and economic oppression or ethnic discrimination by the state.
Many Ethiopians try to reach Saudi Arabia, travelling via Yemen by sea and entering the kingdom illegally. Thousands of others head for South Africa, Israel and Europe.
They often end up being smuggled, trafficked or subjected to mental and physical torture. And once they reach their destinations, many require humanitarian assistance or face a wide range of abuses from employers.
Stranded in Italy, desperate refugees dream of Europe
AFP
ROME - A towering squat on the outskirts of Rome with an ever swelling population of hundreds of refugees has become the squalid emblem of a failing system that is haunting this week's EU summit.
Residents of the seven-floor block -- a former university building dubbed "Salaam Palace" -- come from war-torn, poverty-stricken corners of Africa: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.
"We were only looking for peace," said Mahad, 27, who fled from Somalia to Italy seven years ago. He is part of a group of squatters who try to keep the peace among the desperate souls who long to be able to move to other parts of Europe.
"Living here is no home. There are problems with alcohol, fights. Some here have gone mad," he said.
Fiore, a 29-year-old Eritrean woman with a son 16 months old, described it as "a nightmare from which you can't shake free."
Refugees rustle up plates of African staples in their rooms, where curtains separate mattresses and blankets become prized goods as winter falls.
"They don't know where else to go. They are victims of the system," said Lorenzo Chialastri from Catholic charity Caritas.
He said the building, which houses 240 women and 60 children among its 1,250 residents, was "a no-man's land."
Two shipwrecks that saw over 400 refugees drown this month near the Italian island of Lampedusa as they tried to reach Europe have drawn global attention to what Prime Minister Enrico Letta has described as an "immigration emergency", which has turned the Mediterranean into a "sea of death".
Survivors of the October 3 shipwreck, many of whom lost family members when their boat caught fire and sank, are now forced to sleep in unsanitary conditions at Lampedusa's overcrowded centre, where 800 migrants fight over 250 beds.
Some of the 4,000 migrants at the Mineo centre in Sicily, dubbed "Solidarity Village", rioted this week over the snail-pace examination of asylum requests, burning mattresses, throwing rocks at passing cars and clashing with police.
Italy has asked the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) for help in upgrading its centres, training staff and implementing the Dublin regulation, which state that asylum applicants in Europe must stay in their first country of entry.
'Lives are at stake'
Italy and the European Union have pledged millions of euros in extra funds and more refugee beds but associations and charities say it is not enough.
Around 10,000 people request asylum each year in Italy, but many also try to dodge controls to apply for asylum in other parts of Europe.
A bloated system means those lucky enough to be granted protective status are forced to give up their bed to incoming asylum seekers and end up on the streets, looking for shelter and work.
"Many of these people are traumatised from events in their home countries. The police escort them out of the centres and from then on they are on their own," said Chialastri, who runs Caritas' migrant counselling centre in the Italian capital.
"Refugees need to know what will become of them, they need concrete support. Lives are at stake."
A fierce recession in Italy means finding employment is near impossible and many attempt to travel to northern Europe, lured by the prospects of a roof over their heads, a stronger labour market and a better social assistance system.
Those registered on entry to Italy are routinely sent back -- unless the conditions and lack of assistance are seen to violate their human rights.
Courts in Germany have ruled against the practice because of "the danger of being exposed to inhumane or degrading treatment", fears echoed in a recent report by the Swiss Refugee Council.
'It's very dangerous'
Eighteen-year-old Adam from Eritrea arrived at "Salaam Palace" just six months ago after a gruelling two-year journey through Sudan, Libya and across the Mediterranean to Lampedusa.
He said he was too scared to try to travel elsewhere in Europe. "It's very dangerous, but here there is no job," he said, smoking in a tracksuit and sandals on the steps outside.
"Living here is very difficult, we have nothing," said Ahmed from Somalia, 27, who attempted to start a new life in Norway and Sweden but was sent back twice. He now cares for a one-year-old daughter born in the ramshackle squat.
"Life was better when I lived in Libya under Kadhafi than it is in Italy now," said Ahmed, who has an occasional job unloading goods.
"If I lose this job I'm thinking of becoming a pirate in Somalia, at least they make money and can provide a home for their family," he said.
 |
| A lone refugee at the "Salaam Palace" outside of Rome |
ROME - A towering squat on the outskirts of Rome with an ever swelling population of hundreds of refugees has become the squalid emblem of a failing system that is haunting this week's EU summit.
Residents of the seven-floor block -- a former university building dubbed "Salaam Palace" -- come from war-torn, poverty-stricken corners of Africa: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.
"We were only looking for peace," said Mahad, 27, who fled from Somalia to Italy seven years ago. He is part of a group of squatters who try to keep the peace among the desperate souls who long to be able to move to other parts of Europe.
"Living here is no home. There are problems with alcohol, fights. Some here have gone mad," he said.
Fiore, a 29-year-old Eritrean woman with a son 16 months old, described it as "a nightmare from which you can't shake free."
Refugees rustle up plates of African staples in their rooms, where curtains separate mattresses and blankets become prized goods as winter falls.
"They don't know where else to go. They are victims of the system," said Lorenzo Chialastri from Catholic charity Caritas.
He said the building, which houses 240 women and 60 children among its 1,250 residents, was "a no-man's land."
Two shipwrecks that saw over 400 refugees drown this month near the Italian island of Lampedusa as they tried to reach Europe have drawn global attention to what Prime Minister Enrico Letta has described as an "immigration emergency", which has turned the Mediterranean into a "sea of death".
Survivors of the October 3 shipwreck, many of whom lost family members when their boat caught fire and sank, are now forced to sleep in unsanitary conditions at Lampedusa's overcrowded centre, where 800 migrants fight over 250 beds.
Some of the 4,000 migrants at the Mineo centre in Sicily, dubbed "Solidarity Village", rioted this week over the snail-pace examination of asylum requests, burning mattresses, throwing rocks at passing cars and clashing with police.
Italy has asked the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) for help in upgrading its centres, training staff and implementing the Dublin regulation, which state that asylum applicants in Europe must stay in their first country of entry.
'Lives are at stake'
Italy and the European Union have pledged millions of euros in extra funds and more refugee beds but associations and charities say it is not enough.
Around 10,000 people request asylum each year in Italy, but many also try to dodge controls to apply for asylum in other parts of Europe.
A bloated system means those lucky enough to be granted protective status are forced to give up their bed to incoming asylum seekers and end up on the streets, looking for shelter and work.
"Many of these people are traumatised from events in their home countries. The police escort them out of the centres and from then on they are on their own," said Chialastri, who runs Caritas' migrant counselling centre in the Italian capital.
"Refugees need to know what will become of them, they need concrete support. Lives are at stake."
A fierce recession in Italy means finding employment is near impossible and many attempt to travel to northern Europe, lured by the prospects of a roof over their heads, a stronger labour market and a better social assistance system.
Those registered on entry to Italy are routinely sent back -- unless the conditions and lack of assistance are seen to violate their human rights.
Courts in Germany have ruled against the practice because of "the danger of being exposed to inhumane or degrading treatment", fears echoed in a recent report by the Swiss Refugee Council.
'It's very dangerous'
Eighteen-year-old Adam from Eritrea arrived at "Salaam Palace" just six months ago after a gruelling two-year journey through Sudan, Libya and across the Mediterranean to Lampedusa.
He said he was too scared to try to travel elsewhere in Europe. "It's very dangerous, but here there is no job," he said, smoking in a tracksuit and sandals on the steps outside.
"Living here is very difficult, we have nothing," said Ahmed from Somalia, 27, who attempted to start a new life in Norway and Sweden but was sent back twice. He now cares for a one-year-old daughter born in the ramshackle squat.
"Life was better when I lived in Libya under Kadhafi than it is in Italy now," said Ahmed, who has an occasional job unloading goods.
"If I lose this job I'm thinking of becoming a pirate in Somalia, at least they make money and can provide a home for their family," he said.
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