Ethiopia taps into geothermal riches to diversify its grid

Solomon Kebede looks concerned as he stares at the machine piercing the dark, moist soil of Ethiopia’s countryside. The drill has sunk a hole more than 450 m deep and found nothing. Yet Kebede doesn’t despair; he has faith that the heat must be there. “When drilling geothermal wells, you send your mind and heart to a place you don’t know, deep in the Earth’s core,” he says. “I’m part of the generation that’s trying to exploit these resources.”