Kenya isn’t exactly known for its bountiful thermal spas — but the East Africa nation has ambitious plans to expand geothermal energy sources for eco-friendly electricity.
The Great Rift Valley — a geological formation running 6,000 kilometers (3,729 miles) from Eritrea to Mozambique — offers bountiful opportunities: Not only is this area rich in geothermal activity underneath the earth’s surface, the earth’s crust is also particularly thin here, making exploration relatively easy.
The Olkaria Geothermal Power Station is a perfect example: the facility spans across roughly 200 square kilometers in the region; and since it first started operating in 1981, the plant has grown several times to exploit this clean energy source for Kenyans.
Today, Olkaria can deliver close to 900 megawatts — but that’s nothing compared to the government’s latest plans to produce close to 5,000 megawatts by the end of the of the decade. And even that number represents only about half of Kenya’s full geothermal potential.
Enteq Technologies plc (LON:NTQ) develops and supplies equipment for Measurement, Logging and Geo-steering while drilling of wells for the Geothermal, Oil and Gas markets.
