California's AAE Systems to Invest $1.2 Billion in Ugandan Geothermal Plant

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--AAE Systems (Sunnyvale, California) has signed a power purchasing agreement (PPA) with the government of Uganda for the output from a 150-megawatt (MW) geothermal power plant, which AAE will build in Uganda.

AAE plans to invest about $1.2 billion in the project, which will be located in western Uganda's Katwe-Kikorongo area. The first power generation is scheduled to take place two years after construction begins, and the entire project should be completed and commissioned in four years.

The plant will add 30% to the commercially viable power on the grid. Geothermal power set to become an increasingly popular power source in Africa. While the other clean source, hydropower, is at the mercy of drought and low water levels, geothermal can supply constant, renewable baseload.

Eriasi Kiyemba, the managing director of Uganda Electricity Transmission Company, said that the country plans to generate 30% of its power from geothermal sources in the medium term.

The project investment is one of the larger renewable energy investments in Africa and will provide the world's most advanced geothermal technology at a competitive tariff rate. AAE will sell the power to Uganda at $0.08 per kilowatt-hour, which will be the cheapest power in the market.

The U.S. embassy in Kampala brokered the deal, which is expected to create thousands of jobs and promote hundreds of millions of dollars in increased bilateral trade between the two countries.

The project agreement was signed by Minister of Energy Irene Muloni and Bryan Jones, the director of AAE Systems.

For related information, see April 24, 2013, article - India's $450 million Credit for Ugandan Hydropower is Part of Broader Bonding Process, and January 31, 2013, article - Ghana, Uganda Push to Launch 2,600 Megawatts of Additional Power to Support African Growth.

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