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Germany is eyeing clean energy partnership with Kenya as the Bavarian state seeks to wean off the Russian energy that has been disrupted by the Ukraine war.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the German government is ready to support projects meant to expand the power grid, feed in renewable energy and provide advice on national climate policy issues.

“Germany has entered into a climate and development partnership to support Kenya in reaching 100 per cent renewable energy and to support the country’s adaptation to climate change,” he said.

Scholz who was on a two-day state visit to Kenya toured the Kenya Electricity Generating Company’s (KenGen) Olkaria geothermal field in Naivasha on Saturday where he launched an upgrading project of the Olkaria I additional Unit 4, 5, and Olkaria IV geothermal power plants. He was accompanied by Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir and KenGen’s acting Managing Director and chief executive Abraham Serem.

Cost of power

The project, which will be completed in the next 28 months will increase the capacity of the two power stations from the current combined total of 300 MW to 340 MW adding an additional 40 MW to the national power grid and helping to cushion Kenya against rising cost of power.

The upgrade has been financed by the German government. It entails replacement of the existing turbine rotor with new-designed blades, which will add 10MW to each unit of Olkaria I Additional Unit 4, 5, and two units of the Olkaria IV power plants. Germany has been one of the leading funders of the KenGen drilling programmes, through its national development bank, KfW, as the country races towards ensuring that all its power needs are covered by renewables by 2030.

Geothermal power is key in Kenya’s energy mix, with the chancellor saying it can be used for green hydrogen production to aid local production of fertilisers to help Kenya establish new revenues and cut the cost of production to support growth of local agribusiness.

In March this year, Kenya signed a 300-megawatt green energy and fertiliser deal with Australia’s Fortescue Future Industry (FFI) that would add an additional 25-gigawatts in renewables and production of 1.7 million tonnes of green hydrogen for export per year.

The agreement will enable FFI’s fasttrack significant investment to develop green industrial facilities in Naivasha, Mombasa and Lamu, resources Germany could tap for its energy needs. In the last few months, German leaders have been sealing energy deals with a number of countries after the Bavarian country was forced to start weaning itself off cheap Russian energy imports in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Kenya is ranked position seven globally in geothermal exploration and development, out of which over 90 per cent is generated by KenGen.

Geothermal wells So far, the company has drilled more than 320 geothermal wells within the Olkaria field, establishing a robust, sustainable footprint in Kenya. It has also made inroads in several African countries including Ethiopia, and Djibouti, where it has on-going contracts to drill geothermal wells