Kenya: How Geothermal Energy is Transforming the Country's Energy Mix
10 min read
A crossroads country in East Africa, Kenya has significantly increased its production, particularly from energy, and is seeking to reduce its consumption of firewood. Although more than a third of its 46-million inhabitants still live below the poverty line, the country has made spectacular progress in the use of digital technology and telephony, which is driving its development.
© ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP - The Olkaria geothermal plat in central Kenya extracts heat from some 2 km below the Earth's surface to generate electricity.
Kenya has a unique energy mix: it is dominated by biomass, which accounts for 62% of consumption, but with electricity production on the rise, nearly 90% of which is provided by , led by geothermal energy. Almost all of the country's oil is imported.
Clean Cooking: A Major Health, Climate, and Social Issue
The use of wood to produce , homes, or cook food is a major problem in many African countries. This practice causes pollution for local populations and deforestation, which is harmful to the climate and . The transition to “clean cooking” solutions, based for example on biogas, has become a global priority. In 2026, Kenya will host the second major summit on this topic, in collaboration with the , following the first edition held in Paris in 2024.
Access to Electricity: Spectacular Progress in Twenty Years
Kenya has made significant progress in terms of access to electricity. In the early 2000s, only around 15% of the population had access to electricity. According to the World Bank, this rate exceeded 76% in 2024. 1. To achieve this result, the country relied on a key energy resource: geothermal energy, supplemented by other renewable energy such as hydro, wind, and solar.
Geothermal Energy, a Pillar of Kenya's Electricity System
In 2024, geothermal energy provided 46% of Kenya's electricity, ahead of hydropower (20%), wind (18%), and solar power (4%). That's a total of 88% green electricity!
Kenya began harnessing this heat energy from the Earth in the 1980s with the construction of the first phase of the Olkaria power plant in Naivasha, 120kilometers northwest of Nairobi. Five additional units have been added over the years, reaching an of nearly 800 MW, the equivalent of a basic . Olkaria has thus become one of the largest geothermal power plants in the world, with wells spread over 240 km² to extract heat from 2km underground.
The Role of the African Great Rift Valley in Geothermal Potential
The country, and indeed much of East Africa, is located on a huge fault line on the globe, the Great Rift Valley, which stretches over 6,000 km to southern Africa. This fault line promotes strong geothermal flows with a total energy potential estimated at 20,000 MW, including 7,000 MW in Kenya. The United Nations and global development banks are encouraging the development of geothermal energy throughout East Africa, and projects are planned—but not yet completed—in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Djibouti.
Geothermal energy has many advantages. One of its most immediate uses is for heating greenhouses, thereby contributing to agricultural production. It is also cheaper: a kilowatt hour of geothermal energy in Kenya costs $0.07, compared to $0.18 for energy generated by oil. It emits no pollutants or CO2, is available around the clock, and is more reliable than solar or wind power.
Hydropower, Wind Power, Solar Power: the Other Pillars of the Renewable Energy Mix
Geothermal energy has come at just the right time to take over from hydroelectricity, whose share of the has fallen from 53% in 2004 to 20% in 2024. Hydroelectric facilities in Kenya are generally small in size. Due to increasingly frequent droughts, reservoir levels have fallen and the availability of Kenyan power plants has dropped below 60%, while that of the Olkaria geothermal plant is approaching 95%.
The government's Vision 2030 plan includes an energy component that aims to continue along this path of renewable energy in order to achieve 100% renewable electricity.
The Wind Corridor Around Lake Turkana
Kenya has developed one of Africa's largest wind farms near Lake Turkana, 500 km north of Nairobi. This region forms a veritable corridor of powerful winds from the Indian Ocean—the Turkana Wind Corridor. The Lake Turkana wind farm, with a capacity of 310 MW, is currently the largest facility of its kind on the continent, and other large-scale projects are in the pipeline.
In terms of solar energy, Kenya, like many African countries, is seeking to supplement its centralized networks with decentralized production systems that are particularly suited to villages. Companies involved in this local development are leveraging the performance of Kenya's mobile phone network and its micro-payment solutions, which facilitate the installation, maintenance, and access to this equipment.
Sources :
This may interest you
See all
