Olkaria

I and IV Geothermal power station

KENYA

Olkaria I and IV Geothermal power

station

©James Keogh for AFD

Foster Kenyan growth in low-carbon through geothermal electricity generation.

CONTEXT
15/12/2010 31/07/2015
Kenya is currently struggling to meet demand for advanced
Project start Project end
electrical power, and is compelled to resort to emergency date date
generation capacities at prohibitive costs. Although the
country is fully dependent on import of fossil fuels, it has Olkaria
sufficient renewable energy resources to cover its electricity Location
needs, particularly in the area of geothermal energy with a
Energy , Climate
potential estimated at 7,000 MW. This situation offers very
sector(s)
interesting prospects for Kenya in the production of electricity
based on renewable and low-carbon resources. This project Sovereign Concessional Loan
aims to develop 280 MW of geothermal power generation financing tool(s)
capacity at the Olkaria I and IV sites.
86 000 000 EUR
Financing amount
DESCRIPTION
Republic of Kenya
The project aimed to: install two new 70 MW turbines at the
KenGen (Kenya Electricity
Olkaria I site; install two 70 MW turbines at the Olkaria IV site; Generating Company)
use the existing 45 MW at Olkaria I to steam from Olkaria II Beneficiaries
site. This operation was a pilot project for the Mutual
Recognition of Procedure initiative aimed at improving
efficiency by pooling the resources of European financial
institutions. AFD played leadership role among European
donors.

IMPACTS

The project has: added 280 MW of generating capacity in

Kenya, increasing the installed base capacity by almost 15%.
This helps to support the legitimate growth of the country's
energy consumption: beyond economic growth, this increase in
demand is also driven by the increase in connection rate, as
only 30% of Kenyan households currently have access to the
electricity network; enhanced national resource (geothermal
heat), the cost of which is very competitive and which also has
the advantage of being renewable and enabling continuous
electricity production (in base); promote Kenyan growth in low
carbon through the development of clean energy.