– Africa is second continent on Boeing’s six-month 787 Dream Tour, – Airplane scheduled to visit Ethiopia and Kenya during Africa portion of tour.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Dec. 11, 2011 — /PRNewswire/ — Boeing’s (NYSE: BA) 787 Dreamliner touched down in Ethiopia’s capital today to kick off the Africa portion of Boeing’s 787 Dream Tour – a six-month worldwide tour featuring the Dreamliner. This is the first time the Dreamliner has visited the African continent.
The Dream Tour airplane will be in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia and home to Ethiopian Airlines, Dec. 11-14 before it travels to Nairobi, Kenya. During the four-day stop, Ethiopian Airlines executives and employees, government officials and other guests will have a chance to view the airplane, including the interior.
“Aviation throughout Africa continues to grow at a pace faster than the world average and it is airplanes like the game-changing 787, and airlines like Ethiopian Airlines, that will help spur that growth,” said Van Rex Gallard, vice president of Sales for Africa, Latin America & Caribbean, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “The 787 is the perfect airplane to carry Africa into the future of aviation due to its low operating costs, size and range. Boeing is very pleased to showcase this airplane to the customers who put their faith in Boeing and the cutting-edge technology of this airplane.”
The airplane, ZA003, was originally used for flight testing but has been elegantly refurbished to showcase the standard capabilities and features of the 787 including an interior that highlights the many passenger-preferred features of the airplane.
“Ethiopian Airlines will be the first airline in Africa to operate this great new flying machine,” said Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines. “Ethiopian Airlines is very pleased to welcome the Dreamliner to Addis Ababa. Being able to see firsthand the many benefits the airplane promises to bring like the biggest windows in the industry, spacious cabin, LED-lighting, and other interior features was a great experience when the airplane arrived. Our valued passengers will also soon be able to see and experience the many benefits of this technological marvel.”
Made from composite materials, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is the first mid-size airplane capable of flying long-range routes and will allow airlines to open new, non-stop routes preferred by the traveling public. As a result of innovative technologies, the airplane offers unparalleled operating economics, fuel efficiency and passenger comfort. More than 800 787s are on order by more than 50 airlines, a testament to the airplane’s unique capabilities.
State-run utility Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) has issued a request for qualification (RfQ) for two solar PV projects each with a capacity of 125MW(AC).
The tender will be structured through the World Bank’s ‘Scaling Solar’ programme and the deadline for applications is 21 November 2017.
For example, Madagascar’s Ministry of Water, Energy and Hydrocarbons (MEEH) recently issued an RfQ for 25MW(AC) of solar near the capital Antananarivo. A qualification stage for this tender is expected soon, according to the Scaling Solar website.
Elsewhere, Zambia’s Round 1 projects are expected to reach financial close soon, while Senegal and Zambia’s Round 2 have both gone through qualification stages and are awaiting the proposal stage.
Back in the summer, PV Tech looked at how African solar must find its feet beyond development finance. PV Tech also examined how Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbour, will soon join the global solar boom with a €5.7million fund bringing clean power via Solarcentury to two rural villages that currently rely on small diesel generators.
A new trend seems to have begun between the leaders of the two long overdue rival countries – Ethiopia and Egypt. For the teacher-turned-diplomat-turned-head of state, Hailemariam Desalegn, of Ethiopia, and for the military general-turned-chief executive of the Egyptian government, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, meeting as a sideline to international events has become the new mechanism to stir the talks over the shared treasures of the Nile. Ever since el-Sisi came to power, in Egypt’s third attempt to form a stable government after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, international events have started to serve as platforms of gathering high-level momentum towards negotiations on the use of the Nile waters.
In a matter of months, Hailemariam and el-Sisi have met three times on the sides of international events. The latest was their talks on the side of the United Nations Climate Change Summit, gathered by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and held in New York, United States, last week. Surely, this new trend will mark the start of a new cost effective diplomacy between the two historic archrivals.
It is not only the framework of the talks that has changed, though, but the pace, tone, intermediate outcomes and focus of the talks over the use of the waters of the longest river in the world.
For centuries, the Nile has been plagued by Egypt’s fixation on what it claims to be its “historic right” over the Nile, and Ethiopia’s rather half-hearted push towards a fairer utilisation of the waters. This dynamic equilibrium has been emboldened by Egypt’s visible political hegemony over riparian nations, which itself is underpinned by its importance in the foreign policy books of the West and Arab nations, its capital intensive military capability, a very subtle diplomatic manoeuvring and a thriving economy. Of course, Ethiopia’s fragile political and economic standing, partly contributed to by the numerous proxy forces that Egypt buys to ensure it continues as long as possible, has played its own role in the biased equilibrium of the waters.
Legitimising Egypt’s position were the colonial era agreements, which made the whole issue of the Nile a scramble for resources. Egypt’s show was, therefore, all about destabilising Ethiopia, scaring it away from asking its inalienable rights for development through exhibiting both hard and soft power and maintaining the status quo over the Nile.
Ethiopia began warming-up to change the game in the aftermath of the 1959 agreement, whereby Sudan and Egypt did their own arithmetic over the waters, without accounting for Ethiopia. Haileselassie’s regime took the genius move of approaching the issue in a more technical way and explored the opportunities through the support of the United States Department of Reclamation (USDR). In a move that came following the ending of the anointment of Ethiopian Bishops from Cairo, the feudalist regime managed to bring about technical solutions to Ethiopia’s inferior position over the Nile, including building the largest dam in the nation – the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
But it took almost half a century before upshots of the change started to appear. None other than the government under the leadership of the ruling EPRDFites created the necessary political and economic stability to push the agenda of equitable use of the Nile forwards. Both the extractive feudalist regime of Haileselassie and its successor, the military dictatorship, the Dergue, were unable to push the agenda forward, largely because of their internal instability and incessant external traits, some of them fuelled by Egypt.