Nakuru County is progressively emerging as one of Kenya's green economic hubs thanks to the abundance of geothermal energy. The resource is proving magnetic to sundry enterprises that hanker for affordable, reliable, and green energy.
And now the county government and GDC have mooted a robust memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish geothermal heat parks that will host different industries. GDC will supply geothermal energy- steam and electricity to the park.
"For the heat park, the most important component is the geothermal heat mined from steam," explains Eng Jared Othieno, the GDC Managing Director and CEO.
"We have abundance of heat. That heat is readily available. It's clean and supports various industrial processes."
This is an exciting strategy. Geothermal steam normally exits power plants at about 150 degrees. That is too much heat to be let to waste. Yet, industrial processes like timber drying, milk pasteurization,
oil manufacturing, grain drying, name it, heavily rely on such heat.
Ordinarily, manufacturers use heavy oil, wood, or coal to heat boilers to generate steam. That is a prohibitively expensive enterprise. It is also polluting the environment contributing to global warming. Geothermal is clean and renewable.
It sits perfectly in the global scheme of things to cut down Greenhouse Gases (GHG) as willed in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13.
Use of geothermal steam instead of fossil fuel in manufacturing will boost Kenya's energy transition strategy and green credentials. The steam, available in abundance, will make Kenya one of the
most attractive investment destination for those hunting for green energy.
Besides, geothermal will be a major contributor towards the SDG7 that desires for universal affordable and clean energy and a cleaner energy.
In an elaborate report, Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, the International Energy Agency (IEA) is discouraging sell of fossil fuel boilers beyond 2025 as a pathway of achieving
net zero by 2050. Indeed, in Kenya, the future of heating industrial boilers will no doubt be through the perfect mix of volcanicity and technology that is shaping up at places like Menengai.
For Kenya, the heat resource park strategy is overdue. It positions GDC at a pole position as the centre of excellence in geothermal energy. Such holistic utilisation of resources is critical to turbocharge
the country's economic programmes. This makes geothermal energy some sort of secret treasure for the country. But the deal now is not to keep it under wraps, but to muster the courage and the spirit of adventure to purse the treasure.
And GDC is already making strides. Now, the company is running a semi-commercial milk pasteuriser.
The company also installed a grain dryer. It has also developed other proto-types that include geothermal-heated greenhouse, aquaponds, and a laundromat. These are exciting portfolios.
