Ethiopia Agrees on First Deal for Privately Produced Electricity

Ethiopia’s government signed a deal to buy electricity from a geothermal-power plant being developed by companies including Reykjavik Geothermal Ltd. of Iceland, a partner in the project said.

The state agreed to purchase power at 7.53 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour in an accord signed on Monday during President Barack Obama’s visit to the Horn of Africa nation, said Edward Njoroge, chairman of the Corbetti Geothermal Power project. The signing, which follows talks backed by Obama’s Power Africa initiative, paves the way for development of the facility, he said in an interview in the capital, Addis Ababa.