Kenya and the possible role of geothermal energy
Geothermal well at Menengai, Kenya (source: flickr/ ScientificDrilling)
Alexander Richter
6 May 2015
Geothermal can be the best solution to the expensive electricity costs in Kenya. Will diesel IPP's allow it?
A lengthy and interesting article was posted recently on Soko defending the role and the benefits that geothermal development can bring to Kenya.
As exposed before, diesel generation is expensive in Kenya; exactly 3 times as expensive as geothermal power. Considering the amount of latent geothermal power in the country, this seems like an obvious move. Yet, geothermal is slowly advancing, but an excruciating slow pace.
IPP’s for diesel power generation in Kenya take the vast amount of funds for the government and this translates into some of the highest rates for electricity in the whole of the African continent. This makes electricity a luxury and severely impacts the efficiency of businesses and industry alike, making them less competitive than their neighbouring countries.
These IPP’s have also influence and a lot to loose with the progressive advancement of geothermal, therefore trying to slow down it’s expansion. According to Soko:”Reducing diesel power from 38% to 3% is giving IPPs sleepless nights, since it cuts their revenue drastically. It is therefore Kenyans who suffer from this state of affairs. Geothermal development pace was deliberately slowed down by using development models that emphasized many years of developing steam without putting power plants to convert it into power. For example, the recently commissioned 280MW geothermal plant took 16 years.”
The article goes into detail on the situation of energy production in Kenya and provides a case for geothermal as probably the best alternative for current power generation in the country.
Source: Soko Directory
