Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project
The dam that will help to transform Ethiopia into the ‘green lung’ of Africa
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project is located approximately 500 km north west of the capital Addis Ababa, in the region of Benishangul - Gumaz along the Blue Nile.
At the end of the works, the GERD Project will be the largest dam in Africa and promises to transform the future of energy for Ethiopia: it will provide a sustainable contribution to the country’s energy development, and will prevent over two million tonnes of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere every year.
The project involves the construction of a main dam in Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC), 1,800 m long, 175 m high. It required 10.7 million cubic metres of concrete to construct.
The dam forms a reservoir covering 172,500 square , which can hold up to 74 billion cubic metres of water.
Work is nearing completion on two hydroelectric power plants installed at the foot of the dam. The two power plants are positioned on both banks of the river and comprise 13 Francis turbines with a total installed power of 5,150 MW and an expected average electricity production of 15,700 GWh per year.
The project is completed by a 15,000 m3/s capacity concrete spillway and a rockfill saddle dam (5 km long, 50 m high and 15.3 million m3 in volume), both located on the left bank.
The dam has been partly operational since February 2022, with two 375 MW turbines up and running.
Client: Ethiopian Electric Power
Sustainability KPIs
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CO2 emissions every year
Video brochure
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia - Webuild Project
Technical data
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Maximum height of main dam
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Length of main dam
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Total installed capacity
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Expected average annual electricity production