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When most African governments struggle to fund even the most essential projects, costly new technologies may seem a luxury. But rethinking how they can be applied to energy networks can be a valuable exercise for policy-makers and investors: ‘disruptive technology’ can have far-reaching benefits, or prove a red herring for cash-strapped economies.

President Ismail Omar Guelleh commissioned the 20MW wind plant that supplies the Doraleh Desalination facility, 5km west of Djibouti City, on 14 March. Energy generated by the plant is used to power the 22,500m3 capacity reverse osmosis facility. The government plans a further upgrade to 45,000m3.

Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) signed a $6.5m contract on 11 February to drill three geothermal wells for the 65MW Gale-Le-Koma project.

The African Union Commission has received 17 expressions of interest (EoIs) for the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility’s sixth application round. The EoIs, for projects in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya,Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, consisted of ten surface studies and seven drilling programmes, and were submitted by both private and public entities. Bid opening took place on 3 August.

The council of ministers on 12 May gave initial backing to preliminary assessments of a 30MW solar PV project in Grand Bara and 40MW biomass project in Damerjog. Engie is developing the Grand Bara solar project on an unsolicited basis, having signed a memorandum of understanding with the government for the project in May 2019. The cabinet approved the conclusions of a preliminary evaluation of the project, saying that it would reduce reliance on imported power while creating jobs and contributing to economic and social development.

Construction got under way in January at a 60MW wind farm in the Goubet region near Lake Assal. Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Climate Fund Managers (CFM), the Netherlands’ FMO and Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority’s Great Horn Investment Holdings (GHIH) announced on 12 February that they were using bridge financing to speed up development, an approach AFC has also taken with the 44MW Singrobo-Ahouaty hydropower project in Côte d’Ivoire.

The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources signed a memorandum of understanding with Engie on 28 May for a 30MW solar photovoltaic plant in the Ali-Sabieh region. The solar scheme will be followed by other energy projects such as rural electrification.

Ethiopia and Djibouti signed a new agreement on 17 February for a project to build a gas pipeline from the Ogaden Basin to the coast. The pipeline will be followed, in a second phase, by the construction and operation of a natural gas liquefaction plant and a gas export terminal in the Damerjog area, near Djibouti’s border with the self-declared Republic of Somaliland.

A project to add 50MW-100MW geothermal capacity in the Fiale Caldera in the Lake Assal region of Djibouti got under way on 11 July with an official ceremony launching the drilling programme. Iceland Drilling will drill three 2,500-metre-deep full production wells under a contract signed last year. The first test results are expected in October. The site has been under investigation for more than 40 years, with the first drilling in 1975 and six wells drilled in the 1980s.

The Djibouti government on 22 February cancelled a 30-year contract with Dubai’s DP World to manage the Doraleh Container Terminal (DCT). DP World had been active in Djibouti’s port since 2000, but Gulf involvement in Djibouti and other neighbouring countries has gained more serious traction since the launch in 2015 of the military campaign in Yemen, which is a short hop away across the Bab El-Mandeb Strait. DP World held 33% of DCT after winning the formal concession in 2006.

The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development has signed an agreement to provide a $27m loan to develop the Gale-Le-Koma geothermal project in the Lake Assal region. The project involves the drilling of ten wells (eight production boreholes and two reinjection boreholes) and development of a 15MW geothermal power plant, with a target completion date of 2021.The agreement was signed with the Office Djiboutien de Développement de l’Energie Géothermique (ODDEG), which has carried out preliminary drilling and confirmed a geothermal reservoir at the site.

Djibouti has become the 14th member of the Lagos-based Africa Finance Corporation, a multilateral finance institution investing in infrastructure projects across Africa. “Djibouti is a small but important market, with natural strengths as a transport and logistics hub thanks to the government’s successful free trade policies and its location at the gateway to the Red Sea. Djibouti offers some great investment opportunities and AFC is delighted to be assisting Djibouti to meet its full growth potential and to create jobs for its citizens,” said president and chief executive Andrew Alli.

Djibouti has approved a $75m financing agreement with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, part of the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank, to support the purchase of refined petroleum products. Reuters quoted energy minister Yacin Houssein Bouh as saying the deal would allow Djibouti to gradually reduce fuel prices and ensure a regular supply of petroleum products for vehicles, power plants and domestic cooking fuel. “This project funding is to stabilise and steady prices of refined petroleum products in the event of sharp fluctuations in oil prices on international markets,” he was quoted as saying.

Consultancy Turner & Townsend has won a contract to project manage the construction of a 550km pipeline to carry jet fuel, diesel and gasoline from the port of Djibouti to central Ethiopia. Known as the Horn of Africa Pipeline, it will cost $1.55bn to build and is being developed by Black Rhino MOGS, a joint venture between Blackstone Group-backed infrastructure investment company Black Rhino Group and South Africa’s Mining, Oil & Gas Services Ltd, part of Royal Bafokeng Holdings.

Djibouti President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh on 3 March presided over a foundation stone-laying ceremony for a gas pipeline, liquefaction plant and export terminal at Damerjog to enable Ethiopia to export gas to China. An official statement said the new 700km pipeline will transport up to 12bcm/yr of natural gas from Ethiopia to Djibouti. The liquefaction plant will have capacity to produce up to 10m t/yr of liquefied natural gas.