Nairobi, 2 April 2011
- The rise of geothermal energy in Kenya's
Great Rift Valley was witnessed today by
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who toured
the Olkaria plant northwest of the country's
capital of Nairobi.
He was joined by Energy
Minister, Kiraitu Murungi, Managing Director
of the energy company Kengen, Eddy Njoroge
and members of the UN Chief Executives Board,
including UN Under-Secretary General and
UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner.
Africa's largest Geothermal
Power Station, Olkaria generates over 150
Megawatts (MW) into the national grid, with
Kenya aiming for 1200 MW by 2018.
The state-of-the-art
plant, located on the Great Rift Valley,
operates on a single flash plant cycle with
steam consumption of 7.5 t/h/MW.
Geothermal power generation
requires exploration and drilling for steam
generated by the 'hot rocks' of relatively
young geological areas to turn the electricity-generating
turbines. But high up-front costs and the
substantial risks involved in geothermal
development have meant only a fraction of
the Great Rift Valley's geothermal potential
has been exploited.
In 2002 the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) began working
with the National Power Generation Utility
of Kenya (KenGen) on the Joint Geophysical
Imaging (JGI) for the Geothermal Reservoir
Assessment project, with the aim of lowering
geothermal development costs by improving
the interpretation of geophysical data,
and so reducing the number of expensive,
unproductive wells.
Working at KenGen's
Olkaria facility, improvements in imaging
and interpretation have increased the chances
of hitting steam, and made it easier to
identify wells of high generation potential.
The UN Secretary-General
said: "It is a remarkable story, not
just in terms of renewable energy and climate
change, but in partnership and development.
It is among a growing number of examples
of how the United Nations, the World Bank,
donor governments and the private sector
are supporting forward-looking public policies
-policies that can help to reduce poverty
and lay the foundations for a truly sustainable
future."
Through its sustainable,
value-added approach, the Olkaria project
has contributed to technology transfer and
capacity building through training of KenGen
scientists and technicians, and has increased
power generation and supply reliability
while simultaneously reducing costs and
benefiting the environment.
The JGI project improved
geophysical data interpretation techniques
and provided state-of-the-art equipment
for exploration, using Micro Seismic (MEQ)
and Magneto Telluric (MT) surveys and analysis
to identify promising new drilling sites.
UNEP, with funding from
the Global Environment Facility (GEF), contributed
US$1 million towards total costs of US$2.7
million. Duke University in North Carolina,
United States, collaborated on the project,
which has resulted in substantial savings
on the proposed development of geothermal
resources in Kenya, and there are plans
to replicate this in the wider region. In
addition, the project has provided sustainable
capacity in these advanced techniques at
KenGen's Olkaria facility.
The project has already
shown its regional potential, with KenGen
using its expertise to help Rwanda, Eritrea
and Zambia assess and develop their geothermal
resources.
A regional project involving
numerous partners, including UNEP, has been
initiated in six East African countries:
Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania
and Uganda, to tap into the Rift Valley's
vast, unexplored geothermal potential.
The African Rift Geothermal
(ARGeo) project, supported by UNEP through
a GEF contribution of US$17 million, will
provide a platform for accelerated geothermal
development and investment. Initial estimates
are that these investments could lead to
close to 900,000 tonnes of CO2 emission
savings per year, and well over 17 million
tonnes over 20 years. It is expected that
these pilot projects will generate additional
interest in geothermal technologies and
that this sustainable resource will be exploited
in many of countries bordering the Rift.
World Plugs-In to New
Renewables Agency
UNEP Applauds IRENA
As New Key Clean Energy Catalyst
Renewable energy was
given a boost with the opening of the first
General Assembly of the International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) which opened in Abu
Dhabi on Monday.
The two-day meeting
with 800 delegates from 150 countries confirmed
in its first session that Abu Dhabi would
host the new intergovernmental organization
that will advocate for renewable energy
worldwide.
Established two years
ago, IRENA is backed by both the developed
and developing world as a key new catalyst
towards the expansion of renewable energy.
Abu Dhabi will now be
IRENA's HQ: The city prides itself on sustainable
urban development and has been at the forefront
of renewable energy events and initiatives.
It hosts the World Future Energy Summit
and the Zayed Future Energy Prize for distinguished
achievements in the areas of renewable energy
and sustainability.
The desert city is also
the home of the Masdar initiative, an international
center launched five years ago to develop
new clean technology and renewable energy
in and beyond the urban environment while
raising awareness in the private sector
and in academia on the solutions renewable
energy offers.
"UNEP looks forward
to working in close partnership with IRENA
in mainstreaming renewable energy worldwide.
This is a key sector of UNEP's Green Economy
work and both agency are natural allies
in accelerating a transition at the national
and global level in order to meet the multiple
goals of sustainable development, poverty
eradication, green growth and decent job
generation," said Achim Steiner, UN
Under-Secretary General and Executive Director
of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
UNEP's Green Economy
work, which is an echo to many of IRENA's
objectives puts environmental sustainability
as one of the prerequisites for evolving
economies that meet the needs and aspirations
of six billion people, rising to nine billion
by 2050.
According to its Green
Economy report released in February, by
investing two per cent of global GDP in
ten key sectors, the world can kick-start
a transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient
economy. And investing about one and a quarter
per cent of global GDP each year in energy
efficiency and renewable energies, energy
demand worldwide would drop by nine per
cent in 2020 and nearly 40 per cent by 2050.
The meeting also voted
in Adnan Amin as IRENA's first director
general. A Kenyan national, Mr. Amin, who
was UNEP's representative in the UN Headquarters,
and will run IRENA for the next four years.
