- Globeleq has signed an EPC contract and a long-term service agreement (LTSA) with Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC) for the 35MW Menengai geothermal project in Nakuru County, Kenya.
Globeleq’s $108 million Menengai project will be the company’s first geothermal plant and the signing of these agreements is a major milestone for the project after financing agreements were signed in December 2022 with the African Development Bank, the Eastern and Southern African Trade & Development Bank and Finnfund.
The project will deliver clean, reliable and affordable baseload power to the national grid and also benefits from a Letter of Support issued by the Government of Kenya. Construction of the project is expected to commence during the first quarter of 2023 once financial close has been reached. Globeleq will operate and maintain the power plant once it reaches commercial operations in 2025. The steam turbine and generator will be manufactured by Fuji Electric.
L-R: Mike Scholey, Globeleq CEO; Kazumasa Kimura, COO for Africa Division (TTC); Tadao Horie, Executive Officer, Corporate GM, Power Generation Business (Fuji Electric). Image credit: Globelec
Menengai is a greenfield geothermal project and part of the first phase of the wider Menengai complex, which is the second large-scale geothermal field being developed in Kenya after Olkaria. Steam will be supplied to the project by Geothermal Development Company (GDC), a Kenya government-owned company under a 25-year project implementation and steam supply agreement.
Once operational, electricity will be sold to Kenya Power, the national distribution company, under a power purchase agreement for the same timeframe. The project will deliver clean and cheap baseload power to the national grid and enable GDC to monetise the available steam resources from the Menengai steam field.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
