Kenya: Baringo-Silali Geothermal Project Could be Hit by Government Budget Cuts

Power projects hit as Energy budget halved (Standard Digital)

The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum got the biggest budgetary cut in the current financial year. The State Department of Energy has seen its approved budget halved to Sh60.25 billion, down from Sh117 billion that had earlier been approved. The cut is a massive Sh57 billion.

Among the projects affected by the cuts especially under the Department for Energy include geothermal wells being developed mostly by the Geothermal Development Company. The State owned firm has been developing geothermal wells in the Bogiria Silali.

According to Treasury’s mini-budget, allocation for geothermal development will go down to Sh10.5 billion from Sh21.9 billion. This has had the effect of scaling down to 25 MW the amount of electricity that will be produced by the wells in the area in the course of this financial year from an earlier estimate of 50 megawatts. The number of new wells that were to be drilled in the area have been reduced to five from 10.

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