The country still has keen memories of a drought in 2000 that revealed the fragility of local hydropower resources, and geothermal energy is seen as being a low cost, environmentally sustainable substitute that can be made viable with government regulation.
“The Government has released KES1.4 billion to KenGen for various exploration and post-production activities in the last one year,” said senior geothermal power project officer Martin Mwangi.
KES470 million of the funding will go towards purchasing drilling equipment for appraisal of wells, while another KES25 million will be used for surface exploration around Baringo, Lake Bogoria and Menengai.
In addition to the Rift Valley funding, the German Government has provided KES700 million towards drilling wells at the Olkaria IV power station.
The World Bank has also provided KES3.1 billion towards Kenya’s energy sector, with another KES500 million coming from the French Government.
Although only 10% of Kenya’s power comes from geothermal sources, injection of foreign capital and domestic interest is expected see a 3.9% increase by 2019.
“The Government has identified the resource as the least-cost option for power generation over the next 20 years,” said Mwangi.
