Investors back Kenya's geothermal plans

A UN Environment Programme report published in 2008 concluded that over 4 gigawatts (GW) of geothermal generating capacity could be established across the East African Rift Valley; Kenya says it could have as much as 7 GW and that it wants to have over 4 GW of capacity on stream by 2030. That would revolutionise the country's – and east Africa's – power supply. State-controlled Kengen's generating capacity stands at around 1 GW, which meets around only 80% of Kenya's power requirements. It is also unreliable, given that around 700 megawatts (MW) of hydropower capacity has been severely hit by drought conditions in recent years. These are early days. Kenya has capacity of around 165 MW at a