Kenya geothermal capacity heads for 1,824MW as Menengai completes its first phase
Three 35MW plants at the field north of Nakuru will together bring 105MW to the national grid, financed by the African Development Bank alongside the IFC. Kenya intends to almost double its installed steam generation by 2030, under Pillar I of its Mission 300 energy compact.
The Menengai field sits just north of Nakuru, 180km northwest of Nairobi, and now carries three power plants of 35MW each. Sosian Menengai is operating. The Globeleq plant is under construction. OrPower Twenty-Two is the third, and together they complete the 105MW first phase of the field.
The African Development Bank approved a $16.5 million loan for OrPower Twenty-Two, with further funding expected from the International Finance Corporation, bringing total debt to $64.4 million against an estimated project cost of $91.9 million. The field itself was opened up with an earlier $145 million facility from the same bank to Geothermal Development Company.
The division of work is what makes the model financeable. GDC, which is government-owned, drills the wells and supplies steam to specification. The independent producer builds and runs the plant. Kenya Power and Lighting Company takes the output as sole offtaker under a 25-year power purchase agreement. Resource risk sits with the state, generation risk with the developer, and the lender underwrites only the second.
When fully operational the plant is expected to produce around 301GWh a year at one of the lowest tariffs in the country. The output is baseload rather than intermittent, which is the argument for geothermal wherever the resource exists. The Great Rift Valley is estimated to hold about 20GW of geothermal potential, and the interest is now regional.
In September 2025, Kenya’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum signed a cooperation agreement with France covering Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, combining Kenyan deep-drilling experience with French expertise in direct-use applications of geothermal heat. Alex Wachira, Principal Secretary at Kenya’s State Department for Energy, said the agreement would accelerate regional geothermal use.
Kenya was the first African country to generate power from steam, and Norton Rose Fulbright ranks it the eighth largest geothermal producer in the world. The target under is Mission 300 compact is to lift installed geothermal capacity from 940MW to 1,824MW by 2030, which means roughly another Menengai every year until then.
Photo: Unsplash
