ASAL-FIALE, djibouti — Abdourahman Omar Haga moves his hand over a fissure in a lava lake on the edge of Djibouti’s Ghoubbet el Kharab sea, trying to detect hot vapors invisible to the naked eye in the searing midday sun.
“Can you feel it?” the 59-year-old geologist asks before offering a word of caution: placing one’s hand near the deep crack in the black rock feels like being too close to a steaming kettle.
“It’s very hot!” says Haga, who has spent the past three decades looking for ways to tap Djibouti’s geothermal potential.
The site, known as Asal-Fiale, is one of more than a dozen areas the government says might produce at least 1,000 megawatts of electricity. Generating power from steam forms part of the state’s plan to become reliant on renewable energy by the end of the decade and cut electricity costs that the African Development Bank says are among the highest in the world.
Djibouti needs cheaper power to fund the expansion of its harbors, which cater for landlocked neighboring Ethiopia, Africa’s fastest growing economy. One of the world’s 20 poorest countries, it’s also trying to attract investment to provide jobs to the 48 percent of the population the World Bank estimates are unemployed.
“If you have cheaper energy, it will attract investment,” says Haga, the head of natural resources in the energy ministry. “Energy is the key to creating jobs. It could transform the country.”
Sandwiched between Somalia and Eritrea, Djibouti depends on services related to its location at the entrance to the Red Sea. The former French colony, about the size of New Jersey, is home to the only permanent U.S. military base in Africa at Camp Lemonnier, along with French and Japanese military deployments.
Under a program known as Vision 2035, the $1.67 billion economy is targeting middle-income status — gross national income per capita of $1,045 to $12,746 — within two decades.
The economy is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to expand 6.5 percent this year and 7 percent in 2016, compared with 6 percent last year. The growth plan calls for the expansion of its ports and shipping services to become the largest logistics hub on the continent.
To do that, the country needs to reduce energy costs, according to the World Bank. Power bills account for about 25 percent of business expenses in Djibouti and hinder industrial development, while most companies in the country cite electricity as the most significant business constraint.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency completed a survey of the 13 potential geothermal sites last year.
Within the next year, the ministry expects four exploratory wells to be drilled near the caldera at Asal-Fiale that exploded about 50,000 years ago.
