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 ...
Zanskar Secures $115 Million to Redefine Geothermal Discovery with AI By: Robert Buluma Image: Zanskar Secures $115 Million to Redefine Geothermal Discovery with AI The geothermal sector just crossed another psychological milestone. Zanskar , a U.S.-based geothermal developer blending hard geoscience with artificial intelligence, has raised $115 million in Series C financing, marking one of the most significant capital injections yet into AI-driven geothermal exploration. The raise propels the company into a new phase,moving decisively from discovery to grid-scale power generation across the Western United States. This latest round pushes Zanskar’s total equity funding to $180 million, a clear signal that investors now see geothermal not as a niche renewable, but as critical baseload infrastructure for the decades ahead. Big Capital Bets on AI-Native Geothermal The funding round was led by Spring Lane Capital , with continued backing from Obvious Ventures, Union Square Ventures , and...