Thursday, October 30, 2014

Kenya:

Bank’s Geothermal Guarantee will Encourage Private Financing for Renewable Energy Expansion (Out-Law.com)

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $12.7 million partial risk guarantee (PRG) to “ease investor risk” for the initial phase of a major geothermal project in Kenya.

According to the AfDB, “this mitigation of perceived political risks will promote foreign direct investment in Kenya" and encourage private financing for power generation.

The PRG is for the first 105 MW of electricity to be generated by plants operated by three independent power producers (IPPs) at Menengai, which the AfDB said aims “to exploit a portion of Kenya’s geothermal potential to provide power to about 500,000 households and 300,000 businesses”.

The plants are being financed, designed, built, installed, operated and maintained on a build-own-operate basis by the IPPs.

The AfDB said: “The three IPPs will develop and construct three 35 MW geothermal power plants with a total capacity of 105 MW. This will help diversify Kenya’s energy mix, provide clean, reliable, low-cost power and strengthen the national grid by increasing national installed renewable power by approximately 10%.”

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