Geothermal Development Company (GDC) has received a 1.9 billion shillings ($18.6 million) grant for its Baringo-Silali geothermal project in western Kenya. The grant comes from the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF).
The Baringo-Silali geothermal project is progressing. Geothermal Development Company (GDC), the Kenyan public company that is developing the project in the Rift Valley, has obtained a new grant from the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF). Worth 1.9 billion shillings ($18.6 million), it is intended to allow geothermal exploration to continue under this project in western Kenya.
Created by the African Union (AU) Commission, GRMF is a sub-regional organisation that finances and facilitates the development of geothermal energy in East Africa. The grant it has just granted for the Baringo-Silali geothermal project will enable the GDC to carry out new drilling. In practical terms, the company’s expenses will be reimbursed each time it completes a geothermal well.
“The allocation of funds is a sign of confidence in the GDC and also in geothermal energy as an energy of the present and the future,” says Johnson Ole Nchoe, GDC’s Executive Director. This is the second time that GRMF has awarded a grant to GDC for its Baringo-Silali geothermal project. In March 2019, GRMF had already allocated a grant of 1.3 billion shillings ($13 million) to it.
This funding has enabled the company to make progress on its project. In September 2019, it announced the successful drilling of the first geothermal well. Known as Paka I, it was drilled in Paka, which is one of the three sites of the Baringo-Silali geothermal project. A total of six geothermal wells will be drilled in Paka, Salini and Korosi.
GDC expects that each site of the Baringo-Silali geothermal project will have a power plant that will use the steam emitted from the subsoil heat to run its turbines, providing 100 MW. The three sites will therefore supply a total of 300 MW. Experts estimate that the Baringo-Silali geothermal site can produce up to 3,000 MW.
Jean Marie Takouleu
