KenGen unveils 30MW geothermal well

What you need to know:

  • Considered to be Africa’s biggest, the previous well to come closer had a production capacity of 18MW. But this at 30MW is among the largest, coming second to two other wells, Indonesia (40MW) and US’s Imperial Valley at 45MW.

KenGen has unveiled one of the largest geothermal well in the history of exploitation with a potential to generate 30 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply power to half of Nakuru town.
The three kilometre-deep well is located at Olkaria IV field and it took 46 days to complete.

“This is the largest well to be tested since we started opening up Olkaria fields in 1956. The well can supply twice the requirements of Naivasha town or half of Nakuru town,” said Albert Mugo, Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited (KenGen) managing director while touring the fields on Thursday.

“Getting 30MW from one well will accelerate our plans to add more geothermal power in the national grid,” he added.

Considered to be Africa’s biggest, the previous well to come closer had a production capacity of 18MW. But this at 30MW is among the largest, coming second to two other wells, Indonesia (40MW) and US’s Imperial Valley at 45MW.

At US7 cents a kilowatt hour, geothermal is considered the second cheapest to hydro’s US5 cents per kwh. This is nearly five times lower than diesel engines which cost US36 cents per unit of power.

“This is significant by KenGen to help realise the government’s goal of 5,000MW in the next 32 months,” Mr Mugo said.

Through an ambitious geothermal power production programme, KenGen seeks to commission 280MW units of the geothermal power by September this year.

Another 20MW of wind and hydro (24MW) are also planned under the clean energy drive to be scaled up to 744MW in the next three years.