The Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen) has completed plans to set up an Energy Park at its geothermal power generation hub at Olkaria-Naivasha.
An energy park, sometimes referred to as an industrial park, is a separate area used and planned for the purpose of clean energy development, like wind and solar generation facilities.
The energy park is aimed at taking advantage of the competitively priced geothermal steam and electricity as key economic drivers of production.
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The park will provide industrial, commercial and recreational facilities and will be developed in two phases, the completion of the first phase planned by 2022.
“The park is strategically located along regional transport routes with access by road and rail. The park will provide quality and reliable utilities and energy supply (Electricity, high-pressure stream and brine at 130 degrees Celsius) which will be managed through an appointed developer who will develop infrastructure for a plug and play environment,” said KenGen in a statement.
In June last year, KenGen started installing a Steam Turbine into the Olkaria 1 AU 6 Power Plant, signaling a major breakthrough in the ongoing construction of the power plant.
“This is our focus: to deliver an additional 700 megawatts of clean renewable energy. We want to raise our biggest dam, called Masinga Dam so that we can hold more water and therefore have more hydro-generation even in times of drought,” said KenGen Managing Director and CEO, Rebecca Miano.
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Currently, KenGen supplies about 72 percent of the electricity consumed in Kenya, with over 80% of this coming from renewable sources. The company has a total installed generation capacity of 1,818MW comprising hydro (826MW) geothermal (713MW) thermal (254MW) and wind (26MW).
The demand for electricity in Kenya continues to grow at an average rate of 4.5 percent year-on-year driven by high business activity.
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As of December 2021, Kenya recorded a new energy gross demand peak of 36,381MWh mostly drawn from renewable energy sources as the economy responds positively to the lifting of some of the COVID-19 related restrictions.
KenGen contributed to the largest jump in renewable energy share with the company scaling up production in its geothermal, hydro and wind power stations to meet the growing demand.