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Officials stunned after tapping into well of limitless power source: 'An age of vibrant ... energy'
Officials stunned after tapping into well of limitless power source: 'An age of vibrant ... energy'
In a remote stretch of Kenya's Great Rift Valley, a single well has blown past expectations, releasing enough geothermal steam to power 22 megawatts of electricity.
That's more than four times what a typical well produces and a critical step in the country's race to expand renewable energy.
According to the Kenya News Agency, the well sits in the Silali field, part of a cluster of volcanic zones in the Baringo-Silali-Paka region that has been under development for the past seven years.
It's now the highest-producing well in the area — and this is only the beginning. GDC plans to extract 300 megawatts from this region alone by 2028, with 100 megawatts each from Silali, Korosi, and Paka. The first phase of this project is expected to connect to the grid within three years.
"The viability of Silali geothermal field will usher Kenya into an age of vibrant geothermal energy," said GDC managing director and chief executive officer Paul Ngugi, per the outlet.
So why does this matter? In short: reliability. Unlike solar and wind, which fluctuate with the weather, geothermal energy runs on the Earth's constant inner heat. It's clean, always on, and — once the wells are drilled — cheap to maintain.
In a country where electricity demand is growing and drought has made hydropower less dependable, geothermal is becoming the anchor of Kenya's energy future.
But the real innovation might not be below ground. GDC is also experimenting with wellhead technology, which allows modular mini-power stations to be installed directly at the well site. Unlike traditional plants, which can take up to five years to build, wellhead units can start delivering power almost immediately after drilling.
"This technology not only helps to utilize the investment put into drilling the wells, which would otherwise be lying idle, but also yields benefits through early power generation," Ngugi said.
GDC is betting big on this model. In Menengai, another geothermal-rich site, the company has already brought in three private developers to build plants that will add 105 megawatts to the national grid.
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Ultimately, GDC aims to supply an additional 1,065 megawatts in the next 10 years — enough to radically reshape the country's energy mix.
Geothermal already supplies about a third of Kenya's electricity, but it has the potential to go much further. The country's underground heat reserves could generate up to 10,000 megawatts, yet only about 950 are being used today, Kenya News Agency said.
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