The second high level meeting of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership was held recently, with calls from different speakers for continued efforts to ensure access to energy by Africans across the continent. The energy partnership is one of the eight partnerships of the EU-Africa Joint Strategy which was adopted in 2007.

African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Dr Elham Ibrahim focused on the progress and importance of the initiatives launched by the African Union Commission and its partners, since the inception of the AEEP. She spoke specifically on the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility which encourages public and private sector geothermal development projects by providing cost share grants for surface studies and drilling of reservoir confirmation wells. “Under the facility, grants have been awarded to five projects in Kenya and Ethiopia, amounting to 22 million US dollars and other agreements will be signed in March 2014.

The Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy for Ethiopia, Alemayehu Tegenu highlighted the importance of appropriate and robust national policies and strategies in the success of Africa’s energy ambitions. He pointed to several projects which have been initiated in Ethiopia as a result of the nation’s focus on integrating energy into the core of its national and development agenda. These include the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the Gibe Three hydropower projects which will produce almost 9,000 megawatts of electricity between them when completed and Ethiopia’s pioneering wind farms which he said, are the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.