More news on the construction of the first geothermal power plant in Menengai. The project, developed by the British company Globeleq, has reached financial close, even though work on the site was launched a few months ago. Three development banks are contributing $117 million. They are the African Development Bank (AfDB), which is the mandated lead arranger, the Trade and Development Bank of Eastern and Southern Africa (TDB) and the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation (Finnfund).
The financial close of the project “follows COP28, a global gathering at which 118 countries pledged to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, including Kenya where the first African Climate Summit was hosted last September”, says TDB.
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The Menengai geothermal power station is being built by the Japanese company Toyota Tsusho Corporation, which has enlisted the services of its compatriot Fuji Electric to install the turbine and electrical generator. Globeleq, which will operate and maintain the plant once it is commissioned in 2025, will purchase the steam from the Kenyan state-owned Geothermal Development Company (GDC), which has already drilled several production wells on the Menengai site.
Globeleq will feed the electricity produced into Kenya’s national grid under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) negotiated with state-owned Kenya Power. Menengai I is one of a series of three geothermal power plants that GDC plans to build on the site, which is located in Nakuru County in western Kenya.
Jean Marie Takouleu