(CNN) A landslide of rubbish from a vast open-air landfill site just outside of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, killed more than 110 people last year.
This weekend, the Ethiopian government inaugurated a $120 million waste-to-energy plant, right next to the garbage dump, in an attempt to curb the city's mounting waste problem.
The plant -- called Reppie -- is now operational and able to harvest energy from 1.4 million kilograms of waste each day.
This will produce enough electricity to power an estimated 30% of Addis Ababa's households, according to the company responsible for the project, Cambridge Industries.
"One of the exciting things for us about the Reppie facility in Addis is that it's the first of its kind in Africa," Samuel Alemayehu, Managing Director for Africa of Cambridge Industries, tells CNN.
Africa's fastest growing economies
A view of the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. The country has experienced fast economic growth in the last decade, averaging around 10% a year. Economists cite the country's manufacturing industry as a key element in the country's success.
According to the IMF, Ivory Coast's economy is expected to grow by 7.4%. According to the
World Bank, the country is world's top exporter of cocoa and raw cashew nuts.
The small and landlocked country Rwanda is predicted to grow by 7.2%. The aim of their "Vision 2020" plan is to transform the country into a service and knowledge-based economy.
Senegal's economy is based on fishing, mining and agriculture. Its economy is expected to expand by 7% in 2018.
The East African nation is predicted to grow by 6.4% this year. The country has sustained strong economic growth in the last decade, averaging between 6 to 7% according to the
World Bank.
Ghana was previously the fastest growing economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, but has slowed. Although, a sharp increase in oil production has helped support economic growth in the country.
The West African country, Benin, is expected to have economic growth of around 6%.
The landlocked West African country is also expected to experience economic growth of 6% this year.
Diminishing the need for landfill
A different kind of waste-to-energy plant opened in Cape Town, South Africa last year with the aim to convert organic waste into gas and fuel.
In Naivasha, Kenya an anaerobic digester plant produces enough energy to cultivate a commercial farm and sell surplus electricity to the national grid.
African innovations that could change the world
Welcome, to the bleeding-edge of African innovation: VR, 3D printing, AI and the rest. The continent isn't just driving technological change for Africa, but for the world. Click through to discover the inventions and innovations coming out of Africa.
3D printing - 3D printing is gaining traction in Africa. In 2013, WoeLabs tech hub in Togo made the first "Made in Africa" 3D printer from e-waste. They want to use the 3D printer to revolutionize Africa. They're starting by putting a machine in every school within 1km of the workshop. Buni Hub is another tech center, based in Tanzania, that is building 3D printers.
Pneumonia is a deadly condition. It's responsible for
16% of all deaths of children under five. A main contributing factor to this is slow diagnosis. Ugandan inventor Brian Turyabagye has created a biomedical smart jacket that can diagnose the condition four times faster than a doctor. It's also more accurate. It analyzes the chest and then sends the information via Bluetooth to a smartphone app.
Read more about this biomedical breakthrough.
African countries are developing groundbreaking technology for space exploration. Look no further than the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) in South Africa which, once completed, is set to be world's largest telescope. It will allow scientists to look many times deeper into space.
Read more about Africa's journeys into space.
VR has the potential to change many industries. One example is mining, a profession which has its dangers and risks. In an effort to create a safe yet accurate training environment, a team at the University of Pretoria, South Africa have a created the continent's first
VR mine. The center allows students and mining staff to train in a simulated mining environment. African filmmakers are also making forays into VR experimentation. Examples of recent releases are
Let This Be A Warning and
The Other Dakar.
'Made in Africa' cars are on the rise. Mobius Motors, pictured above, are a Kenyan based car company who are releasing the second model of their stripped-down, cost-effective but luxury SUV built for rough terrains. They aim to sell the car to the African mass market, and anywhere else in the world with poor quality roads.
Read more about Africa's car industries.
Nigerian inventor, Osh Agabi, has created a device that fuses live neurons from mice stem cells into a silicon chip -- for the first time. The device can be used to detect explosives and cancer cells.
Read more about Agabi's innovation.
Cameroonian entrepreneur, Arthur Zang, has invented a touch-screen heart monitoring device that records, and then sends heart activity to a national healthcare center for evaluation. It could have hugely positive potential for rural populations far from hospitals.
Read more about this device.
The South Africa based
drone software company aims to help farmers optimize their output using artificial intelligence. They have created a data-analytics platform, Aeroview, which combines satellite, drone and artificial intelligence technology to improve agricultural practices.
In Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, traffic is a huge issue -- like in many of the world's megacities. Drivers spend hours stuck in traffic jams. A team of Congolese engineers, based at the Kinshasa Higher Institute of Applied Technique, have created human-like robots to help tackle problem. The machines are equipped with four cameras that allow them to record traffic flow. The information is then transmitted to a center where it can be analyzed, and then used to direct traffic.
Read more about robots in Africa.
According to the
International Energy Agency over 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity.
Off Grid Electric, an African startup backed by Elon Musk's Solar City, is looking to solve this by initiating the rapid supply of solar panels across Africa
They charge $7 a month for the system. It already powers 125,000 households.
Could this be a big step forward for the 1.3 billion people globally who lack access to electricity?
Read more about this solar-powered energy revolution.
Three developers from Kenya, Marvin Makau, Edwin Inganji and Kenneth Gachukia, have created a panic button app that sends a distress signal with the shake of a phone. The app,
Usalama, works by connecting people with emergency service providers, and sends their exact location when they shake their phone three times. It also alerts a next of kin and every other Usalama users within 200 meters. They're looking to expand their technology beyond the continent and help make people safer.
BeSpecular, an app from South Africa, allows volunteers to remotely assist blind people. The app uses an algorithm to connect the right people, those similar in age and physical location.
Read more about this app
.
Where the rest of the world has lagged behind, Africa has led the way with mobile payments.
M-Pesa is the most popular service and has 30 million users in 10 countries. Since it was first introduced 10 years ago, M-Pesa has inspired a range of similar services around the world and has helped reduce barriers to finance.
Read more about how Africa led the way with mobile payments
The Zamani Project, based in South Africa, is concerned with the preservation of African heritage sites. They use high-tech scanning systems which document these sites in remarkable detail.
Click here to read more about the project.
It's been the dream of sci-fi enthusiasts and inventors for decades, but has this Nigerian man created a flying jet car that can dodge traffic? Kehinde Durojaiye, or "Kenny Jet", is attempting to build an aero-amphibious jet car. He's driven it on sea and land. Now it's only the air that he has left to conquer.
Find out more about the potential of this flying car.
The Reppie energy plant will burn approximately 85% of Addis Ababa's fresh domestic waste to generate heat, which will drive steam turbines to produce an estimated 185 million kilowatt hours of electricity per annum.
The idea is that this plant will reduce the need for further landfills, while producing and exporting electricity to the Ethiopian national grid.
But the Reppie power plant will not convert debris from the dumping site next door, explains Alemayehu.
The landfill site — called "Koshe," meaning "dust" — covers an area the size of 36 football pitches and releases toxic chemicals into groundwater and methane into the atmosphere, according to UN Environment.
A view of Addis Ababa from Koshe -- the main landfill on the outskirts of the city.
Alemayehu says an all-encompassing waste-to-energy facility is an optimal solution for Africa's growing metropolises.
While such facilities are common in Europe, African countries are more likely to dispose of waste in open dumping sites or semi-protected landfill, he explains.
The African tech hubs fostering innovation
Africa is experiencing increased investment in its tech industries. One contributing factor is the amount of tech hubs in the major urban centers that are sprouting. According to research from
GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator in 2016 there were 314 active tech hubs across the continent.
Part of the appeal of tech hubs is that they provide affordable shared office space, fast internet, and access to reliable electricity, something that the continent overall still grapples with. Nairobi Garage in Kenya's capital offers all of these things, and holds tech events, conferences and workshops helping entrepreneurs gain new skills. Also in Nairobi, iHub tech incubator lists more than 150 companies that can trace their origins to ideas sparked there.
Over 50% of tech hubs are in five countries, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria Egypt and Morocco. One of the biggest in South Africa is Durban's
SmartXchange, which strives to develop small and medium enterprises, and holds monthly forums where successful business figures offer advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.
Cape Town-based
RLabs organizes digital and entrepreneurship bootcamps, and provides an investment of up to $20,000 for every social enterprise developed through their program.
The east Africa nation's capital is home to
iceaddis which supports youth-driven private sector initiatives and promotes interaction between techies, entrepreneurs, investors and people from the creative industries.
The
Co-Creation Hub in Lagos, Nigeria's most populous city, holds so-called tech-In series, where software developers and designers try to create new web and mobile based solutions to social challenges affecting the everyday lives of Nigerians over the course of two days.
Located in Tanzania's largest city,
Kinu aims to be an open space where Tanzania's tech community can collaborate, and make a joint effort to find new solutions to social challenges.
In the heart of Kampala is
Hive Colab, a community-run innovation hub which offers co-working space. It's a place where tech entrepreneurs, web and mobile app developers, designers and investors can meet, nurture ideas and get them off the ground.
Recovering from a recent, bloody history of conflict, Liberia is turning its attention to tech. Monrovia's
iLab offers free training in information and communications technology and serves as a meet-up space for a range of tech enthusiasts and professionals.
Constructing bricks from ash
The Reppie facility has the potential to recycle an estimated 3.6 million kilograms of metals from the incinerated waste each year. Residue ash could also be used to produce an estimated 27,000 bricks every day, explains Alemayehu.
He says the plant will meet the same emission standards as in the EU, using a flue gas treatment technology to ensure that nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide produced by the plant are drastically reduced.
Cambridge Industries partnered with the Ethiopian Government, China National Electric Engineering and Danish engineering firm Ramboll to get the project off the ground.
The facility will turn 1,4 million kilograms of waste per day into energy.
Alemayehu hopes to develop similar waste-to-energy plants in major cities in Africa where landfill is over capacity, such as Lagos, Nairobi and Kampala.
"Having created a facility uniquely for Africa, our goal is to duplicate it in five locations," he says. "We're targeting cities that are in need of building a new landfill."
He adds: "Our goal is to build this facility and also create a renewable energy source that competes with fossil-fuel based power plants."