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Geothermal key to power woes: Firm
The Olkaria power generation plant. Geothermal electricity may be the answer to Kenya’s power problems usually caused by the unreliable hydro-generation system. Photo/FILE
Posted Wednesday, September 9 2009 at 17:55
River Tana feeds five of the country’s power producing dams with a potential to generate more than 740 megawatts of electricity which is over a half of the current total installed capacity (1,400 MW) in Kenya.
Closed down
And with the country’s heavy dependence on water generated electricity, the drought has reduced the power supply by about 23 per cent occasioning the current rationing programme.
This, after KenGen closed down the 40-megawatt Masinga Dam in June due to low water levels while at the same time recording reduced power from the other dams. “Our challenge is to reduce high dependence on hydro energy sources,” says KenGen.
But as the country moves to reduce dependency on water generated power, so is the push to move away from rain-fed agriculture, which has left more than 10 million Kenyans without food, forcing the government to declare famine as natural disaster.
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