Lack of Expertise Holding Back Geothermal Dream in East Africa (The Standard Digital News)
Lack of technical expertise might impede East Africa from fully exploiting the huge geothermal potential inherent in the region.
The larger East African region has an estimated geothermal potential of 15,000 megawatts, but remains largely untapped due to a number of challenges, including inadequate human resource skills. Other challenges include the capital-intensive nature of exploring for geothermal energy.
Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi said despite ambitious plans by governments in the region to exploit geothermal energy, limited skills in the region might hinder plans to put up electricity generation plants that would utilize the vast geothermal resources.
The minister noted that there have been efforts to cushion Government and investors from the high front-end costs, but added that exploiting geothermal energy would remain expensive if countries in the region continued relying on expatriate skills.
“We are lacking critical skills and expertise to exploit the geothermal capacity that we have,” said Kiraitu as he addressed delegates at the fourth Africa Rift Geothermal Conference. “There are a plethora of universities in the region, but few offer courses that are relevant to the exploitation of geothermal or other resources.”
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