“Geothermal projects are capital-intensive and our balance sheet cannot support all the projects that we would wish to have,” Mugo said in an interview today in Nairobi, the capital. “That’s the reason we are going to form joint ventures where we shall provide only 30 percent of the equity while the remaining amount will be financed by our partner.”

 

The company, which is known as KenGen and is 70 percent owned by the government, has the ability to produce 1,252 megawatts, or 75 percent of the country’s installed capacity. It plans to add a further 844 megawatts to the national grid by 2017. By 2030, the nation wants 5,530 megawatts of electricity, or 26 percent of planned capacity, to be from geothermal sources.

 

This December, 280 megawatts of geothermal capacity will be operational, Mugo said. KenGen will start on Oct. 15 a process to get requests for proposals to construct its Olkaria 6 project, which will see a further 140 megawatts built.

 

The first Olkaria project was initiated in June 1981, becoming the first geothermal plant in Africa.

Source : www.bloomberg.com