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Friday, February 20, 2015

JAPAN TECHNOLOGY TO KEEP POWERING GEOTHERMAL IN KENYA

Kenya officially commissioned the largest single geothermal power plant in the world yesterday at Ol Karia yesterday.

The Ol Karia I units 4 & 5 will do 150 Megawatts of power adding to a similar amount being done by Ol Karia 4.

An additional 70Mw will be installed in the same place bringing the total to 350Mw.

The Japanese ambassador to Kenya Mr. Tatsushi Teradaa, told the gathered guests to the commissioning ceremony that Japan was keen to continue its support by financing a similar size plant at Ol Karia 5.

The completed project was commissioned by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda who expressed admiration for the strides made by Kenya in geothermal power.

Kenya is currently providing Rwanda with two geothermal experts to assist Kigali in developing its geothermal potential.

Japan through its external funding implementing agency, JICA, has been key in development of OL Karia geothermal fields.

To put together these power plants has taken Japanese and Korean technology.

The power plants have been built by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the South Korean conglomerate.

The Turbines were supplied by Toshiba of Japan.

The substation and transmission lines were done by KEC International of India.

Sinopec of China did the steamfield development.

Development of the steamfield was financed by World Bank and KfW of Germany.

The consultant for the design of the project and supervision of implementation was SKM of New Zealand.

Financing of actual construction was by KfW.

Financing of the power plant was by European Investment Bank (EIB)and French Agency for Development (AfD) - not to be confused with its more commercial arm, Proparco which finances projects on more commercial terms.

The substation and transmission line were financed by EIB.



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