OPIC Board Approves $310 Million for Geothermal Project in Kenya
September 22, 2011
(OPIC)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. Government’s development finance institution, today
approved up to $310 million in financing for a project that will double the
generating capacity of a geothermal power plant in Kenya, adding new electricity
to the country’s grid through the use of environmentally-friendly American
technology, and creating both American and Kenyan jobs in the process.
In so doing, the project will support the Kenyan Government’s effort to develop
country’s extensive geothermal resources in order to reduce reliance on
hydroelectric power generation and provide low-cost base load energy. Considered
one of the most environmentally friendly power-generating technologies,
geothermal power production emits negligible greenhouse gases and other air
pollutants.
OrPower 4, Inc., a subsidiary of Ormat Technologies, Inc. a Nevada-based
company, will use the OPIC loan to add up to 52 megawatts of generating capacity
to the existing 48 MW Olkaria geothermal plant in Kenya’s Rift Valley,
approximately 75 kilometers northwest of Nairobi. The expansion will involve
modifications to components of the existing plant, additions to the Olkaria
steam gathering and injection system, and development of the geothermal
reservoir to support the expansion.
Ormat will use its own proprietary binary cycle technology involving Organic
Rankine cycle turbines that are air-cooled and run on the heat energy from
geothermal fluid extracted from geothermal reserves. Re-injecting cooled water
into the reservoir results in minimal impact on the environment from the energy
production process and requires limited external water use.
The project is expected to generate 55 new local jobs, among them 26
professional/technical staff and 28 unskilled workers. It will also result in
initial U.S. procurement of $82 million, which is expected to support 323
person-years of direct employment and 212 person-years of indirect employment,
supporting approximately 107 U.S. jobs.
“Doubling the capacity of this geothermal plant – which emits negligible
greenhouse gases and is therefore one of the most environmentally-friendly
power-generating technologies available – is an important step forward for
Kenya’s economic growth, as well as for the global shift to a lower carbon
economy,” said OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield. “The fact that the
project uses American technology to do so, and creates jobs in both the U.S. and
Kenya, makes it a win-win situation for all involved.”
Ormat Technologies designs, builds, owns and operates geothermal power plants in
the United States, Nicaragua, Kenya and Guatemala; as of February 2011, the
company had installed generation capacity of 553 MW.
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