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Africa: The New Frontier for Geothermal Investment and Development
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Nyakabwa-Atwoki, Ralph K. B. |
| Copyright Year | 2020 |
| Abstract | The geothermal electric power generation was invented in Italy in 1904. In Africa, Uganda and Kenya among others, undertook geothermal exploration in 1954 and 1956, 40 and 42 years ago respectively. Then why have these countries no geothermal power developed to date while Kenya is generating 667 MW of geothermal power and 188 MW under construction? The answer lies in Kenya’s overcoming the lack of policy, institutional and regulatory framework including geothermal specific corporate bodies that are barriers to the geothermal development. The country created the Geothermal Development Company Ltd (GDC) with a clear mandate of developing the geothermal resource, policy and strategy which in turn attracted partnership of several reputable national, regional, bilateral and multinational financial houses to raise millions of fund inflows for a spectrum of activities ranging from consultancies, feasibility studies, drilling rigs, financial management and technical assistance and a host of others to enable Kenya to rank the ninth out of the World’s top 10 geothermal countries to date. The African geothermal resource estimated at 20,000-MWe, using present-day technology is distributed in 21 Geothermal Resource Countries (GRC) namely Algeria, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar Malawi, Morocco Mozambique Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia. Once these countries create holistic policy framework and corporate bodies and those currently implementing surface surveys and test well drilling projects using Risk Mitigation Fund (GRMF) funds are completed, Africa will not only become the new frontier for billions of dollars in geothermal energy investment and development but also pave the way to eliminating its image as the ‘Dark Continent’ and relieving the majority of 600 million people without electricity. The diversity of the continent’s energy systems requires that a concurrent Africa energy policy of common energy market be developed to build on and expand the ongoing backbone power infrastructure of the five Regional Power Pools (RPP) towards the creation of Africa’s Continental Power Grid. This will guarantee power wheeling of reliable and affordable power to meeting constituent countries’ goals of reducing greenhouse gases and sustainable electricity for all (SE4ALL) by 2030. INTRODUCTION The paradox; energy poverty in the middle of plenty is best illustrated by considering Africa’s geothermal renewable energy source potential which; using present-day technology is more than 20,000MWe (Demissie, 2013) that remain largely undeveloped. Africa’s lack of strategic geothermal energy specific policy, and institutional and regulatory barriers have so far contributed to the hampering of the systematic development and utilization of this large indigenous and renewable energy resource. In addition, the high risks associated with resource exploration, development and financial risks of investing in geothermal resource development are also major barriers. Most of the continent’s countries especially in the East African Rift System (EARS) have also been lacking the appropriate investment and institutional settings to fast track geothermal development (Wabunoha, 2014). This explains why the geothermal electric power generation, invented in Italy in 1904 (Sarmiento and Steingrimsson, 2007), took Uganda and Kenya over forty years to attempt geothermal exploration. With Uganda drilling for geothermal power at Buranga in Tooro with no geothermal power developed to date (Brown, 1954) and Kenya drilling two wells at Olkaria that never discharged and were abandoned (Mwangi, 2007). Kenya created a geothermal specific corporate body the Geothermal Development Company Ltd (GDC) in 2008 with the mandate of developing the geothermal resource, policy and strategy and as of now, accelerated the country to the 9th rank among the top ten geothermal countries in the World (Musembi, 2014) (Mbogo, 2018). Djibouti, like Kenya, attributes its current geothermal development status to the creation the Djibouti Office for Geothermal Energy Development (ODDEG) that put in place the requisite institutional framework for geothermal development (Abdillahi et all, 2016) and highlights how such policies address barriers, incentivize developers whether public or independent power producers and mobilise financial resources for successful geothermal development. One important outcome is the Donor involvement that has reduced development risk by mitigating high risk exploration drilling and confirmation of geothermal resources that are high investment with no direct control over outcome together with power plant design and construction that are equally high investment but with direct control over outcome (Guelleh, 2013). The specific geothermal policy model has been cardinal in achieving reduction of exploration risks and creation of favourable environment for investments that has attracted partnership of several reputable national, regional, bilateral and multinational financial houses with fund inflows amounting to billions of dollars (Musembi, ibid) (Mbogo, 2018) for a spectrum of activities ranging from consultancies, feasibility studies, drilling rigs, financial management, technical |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://pangea.stanford.edu/ERE/db/WGC/papers/WGC/2020/03007.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
