Research from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and KU Leuven on Ethiopian mega-dam

Solar and wind power could mitigate geopolitical conflict in Northeast Africa. Friday, April 9, 2021 — A new study shows that several disagreements between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt around Africa's largest hydropower plant, the new Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), could be alleviated by massively expanding solar and wind power across the region. Adapting GERD operation to support grid integration of solar and wind power would provide tangible energy and water benefits to all involved countries, creating regional win-win situations. " Our results call for integrated hydro-solar-wind planning to be taken up in the GERD negotiations, - says Sebastian Sterl, energy planning expert at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and KU Leuven in Belgium and lead author of For several years, political tensions between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have been escalating in a conflict surrounding Africa's largest hydropower plant: the nearly complete Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile. Ethiopia, which started filling GERD's massive reservoir in 2020, says it needs GERD's electricity to lift millions of its citizens out of poverty. But Egypt is deeply concerned by the mega-dam's consequences for the Nile river, since its agriculture depends completely on Nile water -Egypt raised this issue to the UN Security Council earlier in 2020. Sudan, meanwhile, appears caught between both sides. Ongoing African Union-led mediation talks to agree on long-term operation of the dam have so far yielded little fruit. Certain tongues have even invoked the looming threat of a "water war?