Energy in Eritrea

Oil and gas exploration in the Red Sea off Eritrea began in the 1930s. Following independence, the country began awarding production contracts in 1995. However, as of January 2003, Eritrea had no proven reserves of crude oil or natural gas. It also has no known reserves of coal. As a result, the country, as of 2001, has had no output of oil, natural gas or coal. Petroleum imports and consumption were estimated each at 4,590 barrels per day (730 m³/d) in 2002. In 1997, due to high costs, Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to shut down their joint operations at the petroleum refinery at Assab and import refined petroleum products. The refinery had a capacity of 18,000 barrels per day (2,900 m³/d). In 2000 an estimated 3.2 to 3.3 million barrels per day (510×10^³ to 520×10^³ m³/d) of oil were shipped through the Bab el-Mandeb, a narrow waterway between Eritrea, Yemen, and Djibouti that connects the Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea.

As of August 2003, about 80% of the population was without electricity, which was available only in the larger cities and towns, although the government was constructing additional electrical distribution lines. In 2002, net electricity generation was 243 GWh, of which 100% came from fossil fuels. In the same year, consumption of electricity totaled 226 GWh. As of August 2003, Eritrea had about 60 megawatts (MW) of diesel-fired generating capacity. In 2019, some off-the-grid community systems rely on a combination of solar power, diesel generators and grid batteries.[2]

Eritrea is developing building its sustainable energy capacity from such sources as wind and solar.[3] Development of renewable energy sources helps give the country access to reliable energy and lower greenhouse gas emissions.[4]

The government of Eritrea built a wind energy pilot project in the city of Assab in the Southern Red Sea region in 2010 with the help of the United Nations Development Programme. The wind farm has a capacity of 750 kilowatts.[3] It also installed six small stand-alone decentralized wind turbines in the villages of Beilul, Berasole, Dekemhare, Edi, Gahro, and Rahayta.

Eritrea has two hybrid mini-grids (solar-diesel) with a total capacity of 2.25 MW. One is in the town of Areza with a production capacity of 1.25 MW; another is in Maidma with a production capacity of 1 MW.[5] Both use photovoltaic solar panels connected to lithium batteries.[5]

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/.