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 ...
“Deep inside a purpose-built turbine hall at Menengai, something ancient met something modern — and the lights of an entire nation moved a little closer to permanently on." There are moments in infrastructure history that arrive without spectacle yet reshape entire industries. No fireworks. No ribbon-cutting theatrics. Just a valve opening, a surge of pressure, and a machine beginning to move. This week, at , one of those moments occurred. confirmed that steam had been successfully admitted into the turbine at its 35MW Menengai II Geothermal Power Station — the decisive step known as hot commissioning . It is the point where engineering theory meets physical reality. Where a project ceases to be an idea and becomes infrastructure. On paper, it is a routine milestone. In reality, it is a signal — one that echoes far beyond Nakuru County. Because what just happened at Menengai is not just about 35MW. It is about proving that geothermal energy in Africa has entered a new phase: ...