Business
Kenya launches Africa’s largest geothermal project
The Olkaria II 70MW geothermal power plant in Kenya. PHOTO/File
The Energy Generating Company in Kenya (KenGen) is expected to officially launch the construction of the largest geothermal power project in Africa on Monday.
The US$ 1.3 billion project for the development of 280 megawatts of geothermal power in Olkaria, Naivasha, about 100 km northwest of Nairobi, will be officially launched on Monday by the country’s president Mwai Kibaki.
Kenya is the first African country that uses geothermal energy for electrical power generation and the only country in Africa to exploit geothermal energy in a significant manner.
At present, Kenya has a total electricity generation capacity of 1,500 megawatts of which geothermal contributes a party 200 megawatts, despite the country having the potential to generate up to 15,000 megawatts from this source.
Out of the total installed capacity, hydro contributes 761 megawatts, thermal 525 megawatts, geothermal 198 megawatts, wind 5.45 megawatts, co-generation 26 megawatts and isolated grid 17 megawatts.
The country plans to raise the contribution of geothermal from the current 13 percent to about 50 per cent by 2018.
“With such a huge boost from this clean, reliable and competitively priced form of electricity, consumer prices will ease as the country will require less generation from the more expensive sources,” added KenGen CEO Eddy Njoroge.
East Africa’s worst drought in decades left most hydropower dams drier and with less water to support peak generation and the uncertainty in the Middle East sent oil prices skyrocketing which in turn increased the price of power generation.
Though geothermal is expensive to install, it requires very little running time. Geothermal resources are the choice for the future generating capacity in Kenya and Africa at large.