Smaller projects could help to jumpstart geothermal development in Africa

Wellhead plants of British Green Energy Geothermal (GEG) at Olkaria, Kenya (source: GEG/ Lydur Skulason)

Alexander Richter 1 Jul 2016

In a recent interview with the organizers of the East African Power Industry Convention, Amanda Lonsdale, Institutional and Commercial Development Advisor, East Africa Geothermal Energy Facility (EAGER) gave some interesting insight into African geothermal development.

In the interview she describes her work for the East Africa Geothermal Energy Facility, established by the British Department for International Development (DFID). EAGER facilitates development of geothermal energy projects in the African countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. At EAGER she serves as a geothermal advisor, providing technical and strategic leadership for all EAGER projects.

She currently works on helping e.g. Tanzania and Ethiopia to determine the best way to approach the utilisation of geothermal energy, on how to determine the role of the public and private sector on how to actually set up a working structure for development.

One particularly interesting point she makes on her vision for the sector in Africa. She describes that geothermal development in the region could be jumpstarted through a series of smaller projects that can be quickly developed and financed to show early success to government and developers, increasing interest and investment in further development.

But she also raises some critical points with regards to geothermal energy itself and the countries’ understanding of it as a resource. She sees a certain oversimplification of geothermal energy resources and development, when it comes to resource characteristics, approaches to development etc.

“There is no one size fits all approach to developing geothermal. It’s an amazing source of base load, renewable energy, but we have to take a realistic approach to how it’s developed”

In that context one could possibly also mention the fact that countries in East Africa also need to manage expectations as resources in the different countries. Amanda Lonsdale describes “each country and reach resources [being] different”, which essentially means that resource potential and possible development capacity is quite different from country to country.

To read the interview, click the link below.

The East Africa Power Industry Convention with a specific focus on geothermal this year, will take place 21-22 September 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya. Details here.

Source: EAPIC