The mountaineer trained Webuild employees at the Gerd dam construction sites in Ethiopia. The feat was made possible with the support of Webuild

• An amateur climber, Mattia Conte took the Webuild flag to Broad Peak, 8,047 m above sea level
• The achievement raised funds for a children’s housing facility in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia

Milan, 18 August 2022 – Webuild’s flag flies on the summit of Broad Peak, one of Earth’s 12 giants, i.e. the mountains that exceed 8 thousand meters in height. The flag was taken 8,047 metres above sea level, a few steps from the peak of one of the mountains in the Karakorum range, on the border between China and Pakistan, by Mattia Conte, an amateur climber who succeeded in the enterprise without the use of oxygen bottles.

The challenge was sponsored by the Webuild Group with the aim of donating funds to a children’s housing facility in Addis Abeba, in Ethiopia. 

Webuild and Mattia Conte met at the GERD (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam) work sites, in Ethiopia, the largest African dam on the Blue Nile that is being built by the Webuild Group. It was here that the mountaineer trained Webuild’s specialised technicians for operations at height, essential to complete a project aimed at becoming Africa’s largest hydroelectric power plant, with an overall installed capacity of 5,150 MW and an estimated average production of 15,700 GWh/year. A veritable power hub that will enable Ethiopia to generate and export clean and renewable energy, avoiding at the same time the emission of over 2 million tons of CO2 each year.  

Technology, dedication, courage, passion and determination are qualities shared by mountaineering and complex building constructions alike, demanding works to reach and sometimes exceed limits already reached in engineering, with safety as a constant concern. The Group’s vast work sites often involve extreme environmental conditions, from Middle Eastern deserts, where Webuild has created major cities, to the snow and ice covered areas of Iceland, where the Group has built the hydroelectric power plant of Karahnjukar.

Webuild is one of the main players on a global scale in the hydroelectric power sector. Once completed, the Group’s ongoing hydroelectric power projects will enable the generation of 14,000 MW of new, cheap and clean renewable power installed for tens of millions of people around the world. Among the ongoing projects, there is Snowy 2.0 in Australia, a hydroelectric power plant that will deliver power to 500,000 homes simultaneously in periods of peak power demand.