Elected to lead Kenya a year ago, William Ruto conducts “green diplomacy”, regularly speaking out for Africa on issues related to climate change. To complete its status as an environmental champion on the continent, it is hosting the African Climate Summit convened under the aegis of the African Union from Monday September 4 to Wednesday September 6. The Head of State can already claim a legacy: nearly 90% of the country’s electricity comes from carbon-free sources.
His country, the economic engine of East Africa, has indeed appeared for several decades as a pioneer in this field. Renewables make up almost 90% of Kenya’s energy mix. Customary of green megaprojects, Kenya has the largest solar farm in the region and the largest wind farm on the continent.
However, its most strategic source of energy, the country draws it from its bowels, underground. Since the 1980s, it has relied on geothermal energy. A winning bet with 48% of the electricity produced today coming from this clean and inexhaustible source. With an estimated production of 962 megawatts (MW), Kenya is the continent’s leader and the world’s seventh-largest producer.
Hot Springs
Ideally located in the heart of the Rift Valley, a tectonic fault that crosses the region from Djibouti to Mozambique, Kenya has a total geothermal potential estimated at 10,000 MW. The intense underground volcanic activity causes the formation of hot springs, which are captured by geothermal wells, then brought to the surface to power turbines and generate electricity.
Five geothermal power plants draw water vapor nestled in the Rift Valley, in Olkaria, in Hell’s Gate Park, a nature reserve known to have inspired the setting of the Lion King and located about a hundred kilometers north of the capital, Nairobi. The sixth plant, Olkaria VI, under construction, will be the largest in the world when completed.
The first geothermal exploration work in the Rift dates back to the time of the British colony. But it was not until the 1970s that independent Kenya drilled the first wells with the help of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the World Bank. “We launched the first power plant in 1981 and since then geothermal energy has never stopped growing, overtaking hydropower to reduce the risk of vulnerability to droughts”, welcomes Professor Nicholas Marita, geologist at Dedan Kimathi University, invested for four decades in the geothermal development program in Kenya, which he considers “blessed” by the presence of hot springs.
Geothermal energy occupies a central place in the 100% renewable objective set by President William Ruto by 2030. here at six years old. »
High potential
But Kenya, on the verge of over-indebtedness, cannot finance exploration, drilling and exploitation alone. The activity is expensive. Drilling a well costs $6 million (€5.5 million) and building a power plant costs $300 million.
A $4.1 billion partnership was pledged by the UK to Kenya at COP27 in 2022, which also includes financial participation in solar, agricultural, hydro and geothermal projects.
Administrative obstacles are also singled out by private investors who regret the cumbersomeness. “The government is communicating fantastically on the need for green energy, but the rest of the administration is not following and systematically putting a spoke in our wheels,” complains a Kenyan businessman in the sector. For example, the Menengai geothermal power station, located 160 km north of Nairobi, is still under construction, nine years after the agreement. Why wait so long? »
However, the path opened by Kenya inspires the neighboring countries also crossed by the Rift. Ethiopia, which for a decade has been concentrating its efforts on hydraulics by building the great Renaissance dam on the Nile, the largest in Africa, would have as many hot springs as Kenya. So far the only Ethiopian geothermal power plant produces only 7 MW.
Kenya, with more than forty years of expertise, exports its knowledge. He trains engineers from the region and carries out exploration work in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Djibouti. It could now expand its cooperation to other areas of the continent. A study by Egyptian researchers in May 2022 identified fourteen African countries with high geothermal potential. In the Rift Valley but also further south, notably in Namibia, Rwanda and Malawi.
