Kenya is to purchase electricity from Ethiopia’s massive River Nile dam, which started producing electricity for the first time last weekend.
Electricity exports to neighboring nations and beyond are expected to bring in roughly $1 billion (£746 million) each year.
A new deal between the two neighbors was reached earlier this month. Kenya’s commitment to how much power and at what cost is still unknown.
Kenyan Energy Minister Monica Juma stated that this step would be critical to the country’s economic development.
The first turbine of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) is now producing 375 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
In 2011, Ethiopia began construction on the $4 billion dam in its northern highlands, from which 85 percent of the Nile’s waters flow.
By 2024, it is predicted that the reservoir behind the dam would have filled, generating more than 5,000 MW of energy.
Ethiopia’s current electricity generation will be more than doubled.
The dam, on the other hand, has long been a point of contention between Ethiopia and downstream countries such as Sudan and Egypt.
Because of their reliance on the Nile River, they perceive the dam as a threat to their water security.
