Why Kenya is betting on geothermal power
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What makes Kenya a leading producer of geothermal power?
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Tutustu Suomen monipuolisimpaan liikuntatarjontaan ja aloita harjoittelu osoitteessa elixia.fi. Motivation included. Tapahtuipa kerran, että pessimisti, optimisti ja saletisti grillasivat. Ja niinhän siinä kävi, että saletisti onnistui.
How is geothermal energy harnessed in Kenya?
Saletisti onnistuu!
Hello, you're listening to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. I'm Michael Kaloki. Today, we're looking at Kenya as a leading producer of geothermal power on the African continent. Globally, geothermal energy is a niche but growing industry, with power plants around the world generating reliable electricity for factories, schools, shops and homes.
What role does the East African Rift Valley play in geothermal energy production?
Kenya is ahead in terms of technology and expertise. And honestly, I think we are ripe even to start exporting this expertise to neighboring countries.
The country is now building what some are calling Africa's first geothermal-powered city. So, how did geothermal energy grow to become so vital for Kenya, turning the East African nation into one of Africa's leading producers? That's all coming up in Business Daily from the BBC.
How does the geothermal energy generation process work?
Geothermal energy is a type of renewable energy that uses heat from beneath the Earth's surface to generate power. It currently provides a small share of the global energy supply, but it's steady, reliable and growing. The International Energy Agency says geothermal could supply up to 15% of the rise in global electricity demand by 2050. Here in Kenya, a unique opportunity lies beneath the surface. Along the volcanic landscapes of the East African Rift Valley, tectonic activity is heating the Earth's crust, releasing huge amounts of geothermal energy that the country is harnessing for power.
What percentage of Kenya's electricity generation comes from geothermal energy?
I'm just leaving Kenya's capital, Nairobi. I'm heading towards the Mwiga area of Nyeri County, about 160 kilometers north of the capital, to meet Dr. Patrick Kariuki, the director of the Geothermal Training and Research Institute at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, to learn more about how Kenya is tapping into this underground energy.
Geothermal energy is actually the energy that comes from steam due to the volcanic activities, especially within the reef system. How do we tap into this energy?
How significant is geothermal energy for Kenya's energy mix?
And what we do, we start by exploring. There are indicators that we use to tell us, for example, where the geothermal resources could be. For example, on the surface, we can make observations on things like fumaroles. Fumaroles, which are mainly within the reef system, like, for example, in Orkaria.
Olkaria is a volcanic region home to Kenya's largest geothermal energy complex.
What are the economic opportunities from scaling geothermal energy in Kenya?
And fumaroles, as mentioned there by Dr. Kariuki, are openings in the Earth's surface that emit steam and volcanic gases.
When we realize that we might be having a potential, then there are some steps that we use. We do what we call the three Gs. We do geological survey. We do geophysical survey and also geochemistry.
What challenges does Kenya face in maximizing its geothermal potential?
And through that, we are able now to establish the location we are likely to set our boreholes, or rather our wells, mostly relying on the geophysics. And then the geochemistry will enable us to establish the temperature conditions as we go down within the well.
After a tour of Dr. Karyuki's lab to learn about the science behind geothermal, I head out to see how the industry is harnessing that energy. I'm visiting a power plant run by the Kenya Electricity Generating Company, better known as Kenjen, in Olkaria, about 130 kilometers northwest of Nairobi. I'm in a fairly large enclosure, and as I look around me, I see a stack of what looks like large warehouses with pipes running from one building to another. I also see steam billowing out from the tops of some of these structures. Well, standing next to me here is Victor Otieno, who works as a geologist at Kenjin.
Victor, can you explain to me what is going on here? So where we are at the moment is Alkaria 1 additional unit, a geothermal power plant. This power plant has a capacity of 226 megawatts. So the process of electricity generation, it is a fairly a bit long process.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What makes Kenya a leading producer of geothermal power?
0:00–0:42
2
How is geothermal energy harnessed in Kenya?
0:42–1:18
3
What role does the East African Rift Valley play in geothermal energy production?
1:18–1:54
4
How does the geothermal energy generation process work?
1:54–2:48
5
What percentage of Kenya's electricity generation comes from geothermal energy?
2:48–3:26
6
How significant is geothermal energy for Kenya's energy mix?
3:26–3:53
7
What are the economic opportunities from scaling geothermal energy in Kenya?
3:53–4:18
8
What challenges does Kenya face in maximizing its geothermal potential?
4:18–19:30
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Business Daily
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