Tapping into a storehouse of geothermal energy fuels a rapidly growing economy
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Verdant hills stretch into the distance at Hill’s Gate National Park in Kenya, where zebras, buffalos, antelopes, baboons and other wildlife roam and idyllic landscape of forests, gorges and grassy volcanos near the shore of Lake Naivasha.
Snaking over the same landscape are pipes. Miles and miles of pipes ? some high enough off the ground that trucks can pass underneath and giraffes won’t hit their heads ? carry steam from beneath this volcanic valley to big power plants inside the park.
The valley’s animal herders have long known the unusual properties of the ground under their feet. On chilly days, they warmed themselves near vents that emit plumes of hot steam. Now, Kenya is increasingly harnessing that steam to turn generators that can allow it to expand electrical service and power its rapidly its rapidly growing economy.
The park, about 50 miles from the capital of Nairobi, sits over the East African Rift, a huge fracture in the earth’s crust that also cuts through Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and other countries. Steam from here helped generate 47 percent of Kenya’s electricity in 2015, with hydropower (nearly 35 percent) generating much of the rest.
Kenya has pushed hard to harness its geothermal capabilities. It generated 45 megawatts of power with geothermal energy in 1985 and now generates about 630 megawatts; nearly 400 megawatts of that production has come online since 2014.
“No matter how you cut it, that is a significant amount of generation in the geothermal world,” said Gene Suemnicht, chief executive of EGS, a California-based geothermal consultancy that has worked in Kenya.
That explosive growth has made geothermal power a promising source of renewable energy for a country of 44 million people that is expected to nearly double in population by 2050.
Much of Kenya lacks electricity; only 40 percent of its population has access to reliable service. Much of the continent has even less: About 25 percent of all Africans have access to reliable electricity. Although Africa is home to 16 percent of the world’s population, it consumes only 3.3 percent of global power production.
Reliable energy is a vital driver of economic growth. At Oserian, a company based near Lake Naivasha that is one of Kenya’s largest flower exporters, geothermal steam warms greenhouses and generates electricity at its two power plants.
Geothermal heating allows the company to sell 380 million flower stems each year and also grow “varieties of roses that would not be economically viable without 24-hour heating,” said Neil Hellings, managing director of Oserian. Savings from using geothermal energy versus conventional electricity lets Oserian pay its employees more than double that of many competitors, Mr. Hellings added.
Another geothermal field under development north of Hill’s Gate was expected to bring to 500,000 households and 300,000 small and midsize businesses, according to the African Development Bank Group.
Other countries have used geothermal power to drive their economies. In the 1970s, geothermal development helped propel Iceland into a wealthy island nation.
The rise of Kenya’s geothermal industry ? it ranks ninth in the world in geothermal energy production, according to the Geothermal Council Resource, an American industry association ? has helped reduce electricity rates and expand access to electricity. The government has set an ambitious goal of universal access by 2020. But there are many challenges.
Electrical transmission and distribution ? and connecting customers who can pay for service ? is crucial to a viable power business. In Kenya “the grid to transport the generated power to citizens also needs substantial investment,” said Victoria Cuming, head of policy at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Efforts to expand Kenya’s grid are underway, with about 5,100 miles of new electrical lines either under construction or planned by the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company, or Ketraco. The main hurdle for grid expansion will be financing. “Kenya has typically relied on concessional investors or government funding,” Ms. Cuming said.
Sanjay Chandra, director of new energy development an ICF, a consultancy in the United States, noted that connecting home or smaller businesses in the “last mile is always challenging.” This is especially so in poor areas where people may not be able to afford electricity or don’t use much, therefore making it relatively expensive ? and financially unviable ? for companies to connect them.
In western Kenya “the electrification rate is hovering around 5 percent even though 84 percent of unconnected households are within 200 meters of a connection points,” Mr. Chandra said.
Last year, Kenya’s demand for electricity exceeded 1,600 megawatts for the first time. Under ideal circumstances, the country has the potential to generate more than 10,000 megawatts of geothermal energy, according to the Kenya Electricity Generating Company, or KenGen, which generates the majority of the country’s electricity.
Across all of East Africa, there’s potential for some 20,000 megawatts of geothermal energy, according to a report from agencies including the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa and the United Nations Environment Program.
But lack of funding and technical expertise, poor governance, and corruption often hobble big infrastructure projects in developing countries.
And though geothermal is considered renewable energy, it does have pitfalls. While the Earth will most likely supply heat for millions of years, the underground water necessary to produce steam can be depleted if not recharged.
From a geological perspective, Kenya’s geothermal conditions are ideal.
“The amount of volcanism is amazing,” Mr. Suemnicht said. “It’s in the center of the action.”
The East African Rift is one of the world’s largest rift valleys, about 3,700 miles in length and 30 to 40 miles across. It is slowly splitting the African continent apart at the rate of several millimeters each year.
Kenya is by far Africa’s geothermal leader. Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Djibouti, Eritrea and Comoros have all done preliminary exploration and Ethiopia generates about 7 megawatts of geothermal power.
Tapping geothermal energy is a long and expensive process that requires special expertise. From start to finish, it can take years from site-scouting to construction to connection to generating electricity ? and revenue.
To find suitable spots for drilling steam wells, scientists do geological, geochemical and geophysical surveillance, a process that can take three months, said Xavier Musouye, a geologist with KenGen. When sutable spots are found and assessed, drilling begins using the kind of tall rigs commonly seen at oil wells. Except for periodic maintenance breaks, these drills pound into the earth 24 hours a day for nearly two months.
At a new well site in Hell’s Gate, the noise was deafening as gargantuan machinery pummeled the ground. The well will eventually reach a deapth of almost two miles, joining the nearly 300 others already in place in the park.
It can cost about $6 million for a single well, and even with all the planning and testing there is still a risk of drilling an empty well.
Although geothermal power has led to rapid expansion of electrical service in Kenya, there are environmental trade-offs. There is the conundrum of drilling in Hill’s Gate, a 26-square-mile area that is one of the country’s smaller parks but has been designed a Unesco world heritage site. Some environmentalists complain that pipes and power plants are environmentally disruptive and an eyesore.
Elizabeth Mwangi-Gachau, chief environmental officer for KenGen, said the company conducts environmental assessments and tries to mitigate impact. It considers wildlife migration and behavior in its development plans. Ms. Mwangi-Gachau added that KenGen has refrained from drilling in parts of Hell’s Gate that would compromise the flora and fauna, even where there is major geothermal potential.
Dr. Meseret Zemedkun, energy program manager for the United Nations program, said environmentally friendly geothermal projects have been developed around the world, even within national park areas in the United States, Italy, Iceland, New Zealand and Japan.
KenGen has even opened a geothermal spa, following the lead of an Icelandic power company that opened the Blue Lagoon spa, an attraction that uses water harnessed by a nearby geothermal power plant to warm its pools.
