Kenya geothermal development targets as laid out by 2018/19 Government Budget

Olkaria geothermal plant, Naivasha, Kenya (source: Lydur Skulason, creative commons)

Alexander Richter 15 Jun 2018

Yesterday, the Government of Kenya published the Budget for 2018/ 2019. As part of the budget, it also shared details on the financial expenditure planned for geothermal energy development.

While the baseline for the 2017/ 2018 year was Sh 14.85 billion, the budget for 2018/ 2019 is Sh 12,14 billion. Based on estimates for the following years, this is to go up to Sh 17.36 billion in 2019/ 2020 and Sh 22.36 billion in 2020/ 2021.

The budget for geothermal energy falls under funding for the State Department for Energy.

Major achievements realized during the period 2017/ 2018 under review included; generation of 842.8MW to the National grid; 25 geothermal wells drilled; 8 off grid Power Generation Stations constructed; 1,224Km of transmission lines and 28 transmission sub-stations constructed; connection of 3,461,239 new customers to electricity; over 15,000 public primary schools electrified; 1,597 other public facilities connected with electricity; 73,706 street lighting points installed; trained 238 officers in nuclear related courses and 1,597Ha of trees were planted in degraded hydro power dams catchment areas and water towers.

For power generation, the Kenyan government has set the following targets for 2018/ 2019:

• 4 Geothermal technical study reports
• 2 wells to be drilled for the Bogoria-Silali geothermal project (GDC)
• 60 MW to come online for the Olkaria I and Olkaria IV projects/ plants (KenGen)
• 200 MW to come online for the Menengai geothermal development project [Note: 105 MW are being developed by private players]
• 60% of the wells to be drilled for the Olkaria V geothermal project (KenGen)
• 60 MW to come online from the Olkaria II geothermal power plant (KenGen)
• 2 Geothermal Exploration reports (no specific projects named)

Source: Treasury of Kenya (pdf)