Kenya will depend on private investment for geothermal development
Olkaria III plant by Ormat (source: video screenshot)
Alexander Richter
23 May 2016
Kenya's Energy Cabinet Secretary expects independent power producers to play a major role in Kenya reaching its ambitious geothermal development goals.
In a statement today, Kenya’s Energy Cabinet secretary Charles Keter reported that the Kenyan government is not in a position to finance the ambitious geothermal development in the pipeline. It will therefore have to trust private investment to drive development.
The time it takes to develop geothermal projects and the high up-front cost make it difficult for the Kenyan government and government-owned players such as KenGen and GDC to shoulder development costs on their own.
“We want Government participation to be limited, which will in the end open up the sector for private investors…this will only be possible if the new policy is fast-tracked,” Keter said at an ongoing geothermal consultative forum in Nairobi, citing slow pace of projects’ delivery as the reason to the change of tune.
The new Energy Bill is currently before Senate and upon its enactment Independent Power Producers are expected to be the standard model for future renewable energy development.
The forum taking place in Nairobi these days is expected to help the Kenyan government to formulate new legislation that will help attract private investment to help successfully deliver geothermal projects on time.
Earlier government goals sought for Kenya to install up to 5,000 MW in geothermal power generation capacity by 2017, which at this point is not very likely with an installed generation capacity of around 660 MW.
Source: Media Max
