Kenya can lead geothermal energy development in Africa

Kenya is one of several East African countries with excellent geothermal power potential. Geothermal energy certainly looks to be one of the best clean energy options for Kenya, and unlike many other African countries Kenya already generates electricity from geothermal power plants, in fact it has been reported that Kenyan geothermal power plants already provide more than 200 MW of power generation.

Kenya's hunger for power will continue to grow, and current annual power generation of just 1600 MW is expected to grow to more than 15,000 MW by 2030, with geothermal resources projected to supply around 7,000 MW.

In order to achieve this goal, Kenya will require major investment to ensure such massive geothermal energy development. Attracting investors to geothermal energy projects isn't the most simple thing but massive geothermal energy potential should certainly play its role in this.

The additional problem is that of all other East African countries (such as Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi) only Kenya has been so far involved in efforts to harness vast geothermal energy resources while many other African countries lack even the basic strategy needed for geothermal energy development.

It is a well known fact that The Great Rift Valley, which runs from Middle East to Mozambique has excellent geothermal energy potential with many hot springs and geysers but besides Kenya there hasn't been many interested countries to harness this clean energy source.

Kenya's capital Nairobi will be the host of Geothermal Power Summit in September, 2013 where African countries should discuss the future geothermal energy development. Kenya alone is said to have geothermal energy potential of more than 10,000 MW.