Future looks bright for geothermal to bridge power gap in East Africa
Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) Ol-Karia IV power plant near Naivasha town. The geothermal power plant is the eighth-largest in the world ahead of giant economies such as Japan, Russia, China and Germany. PHOTO | AFP
Africa has the potential to increase its renewable energy to not only set the continent on a low-carbon economic growth path, but also shrug off the hydropower and fossil fuel dependency for energy generation. This generation mix has been unsustainable largely due to persistent and frequent drought spells and fossil fuel price fluctuations on the international market.
The renewable energy sector in East Africa is now aspiring to increase the installed capacity of geothermal on the continent by over 2,500MW of electricity by 2030.
