Menengai’s Broken Promise: How Kenya’s Geothermal Model Lost the Steam Thematic image of the Olkaria Geothermal Field Kenya’s Menengai geothermal project was sold as a model of modern public-private partnership. The state would carry the difficult and expensive burden of geothermal exploration and drilling. Private power producers would then build, own and operate power plants. Geothermal Development Company would supply the steam; the independent power producers would convert it into electricity; Kenya Power would buy the output. On paper, the arrangement was elegant. In practice, Menengai has exposed a far more uncomfortable reality: Kenya’s public steam-supply model is not delivering the certainty it promised. Menengai Phase I was designed to produce 105 megawatts from three 35 MW plants. GDC’s own project page says the three plants were awarded to Globeleq Menengai Geothermal, Sosian Menengai Geothermal Power and OrPower Twenty Two under a build-own-operate structure. Yet the ...
How Geothermal Energy Works: From Underground Heat to Electricity Grid By: Robert Buluma In 1904, the Italian town of Larderello lit five lightbulbs using nothing but the heat of the Earth. By 1913, a full-scale plant was producing 250 kilowatts there from natural steam vents. Yet more than a century later, geothermal remains one of the most underappreciated clean energy sources on the planet — today accounting for just about 0.5% of global electricity. That is beginning to change. As the world searches for reliable, round-the-clock renewable power to complement intermittent wind and solar, geothermal is attracting unprecedented attention. "Geothermal could be the backbone to providing a clean, affordable, reliable, low-cost grid," says Katrina McLaughlin of the World Resources Institute. With emerging technologies poised to unlock heat virtually anywhere beneath our feet, understanding how this remarkable resource works has never been more important. I. The Fiery Engine Dee...