Adama, Ethiopia--The wind blows hard over Adama, a range of rocky hills in Ethiopia's highlands that provide the perfect location for one of the continent's largest wind farms.
"In February, during the dry season, it is even difficult to stand here," said Solomon Yismaw, the engineer in charge of 102 Chinese-built turbines each rising 70 metres (230 feet) into the sky, lining the horizon.
The Adama wind farm opened last month, its 153 megawatt (MW) capacity making it the largest wind farm in sub-Saharan Africa, and the latest of three giant Ethiopian wind farms.
The hills here, 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa, are 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) high.
Farmers using simple ox carts to plough the soil around the bases of the wind turbines offer a striking contrast between rural lives, little changed for centuries, and the central government's ambition to develop a modern, climate-resilient economy.
Without its own reserves of either gas or oil, Ethiopia is turning to its significant renewable energy potential to fuel its rapid economic development -- including damming the vast Blue Nile, with turbines there providing over 90 percent of the country's electricity production, and the southern Omo River.
But the flow of rivers is subject to rainfall that is erratic in Ethiopia.
"We have an abundance of hydroelectric energy sources, but during the dry season and when droughts happen the level of the dam decreases," said Solomon, who pointed out that the wind turbines were immune to the dry spells.
AFP
