Chinese-Built Upgrade of Africa's First Geothermal Plant Fully Connected: Olkaria I Capacity Rises From 45 MW to 63 MW
Xinhua reported from Nairobi on November 11 that all three generating units of Olkaria I, Africa's first geothermal power station, have been connected to the grid following an upgrade built by a Chinese company. Located in Hell's Gate National Park in Nakuru County, Kenya, the plant's total installed capacity has risen from 45 megawatts to 63 megawatts using the same total supply of underground steam.
Commissioned in the 1980s, the plant is more than four decades old. The rehabilitation, carried out by SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Co., a subsidiary of Power Construction Corporation of China, began in August 2023 and renewed all three units within the constraints of the old plant, introducing Chinese-made equipment including condensers, circulating water pumps and cooling towers to replace ageing machinery. Maurice Awuor, an electrical engineering manager at the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), said the upgraded plant accounts for about 2 percent of Kenya's total installed generation capacity and is the only geothermal rehabilitation project in the country in the past three years to be commissioned and add capacity.
Kenya sits on the East African Rift and is rich in geothermal resources. According to the country's Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority, geothermal power consistently supplies about 40 percent of Kenya's electricity, its largest single source. Under the Kenya National Energy Compact 2025-2030, the country aims to raise geothermal capacity to 1,681 megawatts by 2030 and reach 100 percent clean electricity generation.
Source: Xinhua
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：肯尼亚奥尔卡里亚地热电站（资料图）。图：Macabe5387，CC BY-SA 4.0，经维基共享资源 / The Olkaria geothermal power station in Kenya (file photo). Photo by Macabe5387, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
