Ethiopia and Kenya both embrace renewables for their electricity production.
Ethiopia produces all the power for its national grid from renewable sources, and is home to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the largest hydropower plant in Africa. In Kenya, renewables account for around 90% of electricity, and the country boasts one of the largest geothermal facilities in the world, in the Olkaria Area.
But relying on renewables can be hard: electricity can’t always be generated when needed (a drought can mean no hydropower) and renewable energy is difficult to store. One solution? The Ethiopia-Kenya Electricity Highway.
The vast piece of infrastructure opened officially last year after a decade of work and $1.2 billion of investment. Now, when one country needs more electricity for its national grid and the other has a surplus, electricity automatically flows across the border, along 650 miles of transmission lines, so that supply meets demand. Last week, a Kenya-Tanzania link began operations, which will let energy flow across that border, too.
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