Webuild S p A : Ethiopian Prime Minister starts first turbine of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

ETHIOPIA, February 20, 2022 - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali started up the first turbine of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the large dam in roller compacted concrete (RCC) being built by Webuild on the Blue Nile in the western region of Benishangul-Gumuz in Ethiopia. Once completed, the GERD will be the biggest hydropower dam in Africa and will support the country's economic development, helping to reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2025 with the huge production of electricity from renewable sources. The plant will have an installed production capacity of 5,150 MW, able to produce an average 15,700 GWh every year. It is being built by approximately 10,000 people on a yearly average.

Commissioned by Ethiopian Electric Power, the project is valued at €3.48 billion and is 84% complete. Once completed, it will become an energy hub for the region, which is in great need of energy. It will allow the country to generate and export clean and renewable electricity, avoiding the emissions of more than two million tonnes of CO2 a year.

Located approximately 700 kilometres northwest of the capital Addis Abeba, the project includes the design and construction of an RCC dam, a saddle dam and two power stations installed downstream at the foot of the dam on opposite shores. The main RCC dam will be 1,800 metres long and 170 metres high. It will create a reservoir covering 1,875 square kilometres and contain 74 billion cubic metres of water. The rockfill saddle dam will have a volume of 15.3 million cum and crest length of 5000 km.

The GERD is a major project whose construction required innovative solutions. One feature was the composition of the RCC, developed by global experts to have it settle more quickly thereby improving the production and quality of the material.

Webuild is among the global leaders in the hydropower sector. The hydropower projects currently being built by the Group, once completed, will have more than 14,400 MW of installed capacity of clean, renewable energy at low cost for tens of millions of people throughout the world. These projects include Snowy 2.0 in Australia, which will be able to power 500,000 homes at peak time.