- Kengen installed power stands at over 1,904MW
- 86 percent of this is drawn from green energy
Image: George Murage
The long-awaited Green Energy Park in Olkaria Naivasha will be operational in a couple of months offering investors electricity at a subsidised rate.
Already, the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (Kengen) has set aside over three hundred hectares in the geothermal-rich area of Olkaria.
The industrial park, according to the electricity generating company, will accommodate a blend of industrial and non-industrial activities with electricity supplied at subsidised rates.
This comes as the power generator welcomes the $1 billion (Sh130.3 billion) Microsoft-G42 Olkaria data center campus that is scheduled to break ground late next year.
During the visit to the US, President William Ruto and the AI and cloud computing company, committed to developing a renewable energy-powered cloud data center in Kenya.
According to Kengen MD Eng. Peter Njenga, they have identified a total of 342 hectares in Olkaria for industrial and non-industrial activities.
Njenga noted that under the park, the investors would get subsidised electricity from the geothermal power fields as one way of boosting production.
“The park development encompasses offices, data centers, research and development centers, hospitality spaces, a visitor experience center, and commercial facilities,” he said.
In a statement, Njenga noted that various geothermal plants in Olkaria were producing over 800MW with the country boasting over 980MW from installed geothermal capacity.
“KenGen Green Energy Park has become a hallmark of Kenya’s sustainable development and is a testament to our dedication to innovation, collaboration, and responsible growth,” he said.
The MD at the same time welcomed the Microsoft-G42 Olkaria data center campus, saying that KenGen was ready to provide the needed green energy to power the project.
“The Microsoft and G42 green data center campus at our Green Energy Park will run on 100 per cent renewable geothermal power at the Olkaria Geothermal fields,” he said.
He said that the project was set to redefine industrialisation in the region, while providing a sustainable and clean source of geothermal energy for the industries.
Njenga noted that the new ‘East Africa Cloud Region’, based in Kenya, would offer Microsoft Azure cloud services powered by G42's green data centres.
“This center will provide scalable, secure, and high-speed cloud computing and AI capabilities to accelerate digital transformation across Kenya, East Africa and the continent,” he said.
Njenga said that as part of this ambitious project, G42 will build a sustainable data center campus powered entirely by geothermal energy from the Olkaria geothermal fields.
“This visionary project is set to redefine industrialisation in the region while providing a sustainable and clean source of geothermal energy,” he said.