East Africa Economic Report

Kenya leapfrogs Iceland. Next target? Kenya is now the world’s eighth-largest geothermal producer.   It has leapfrogged Iceland. Kenya’s electricity generating company, KenGen, last month added another 79 Mw from its Olkaria V unit 1, bringing the total Geothermal generating capacity to 769 MW ahead of Iceland’s 710 MW. Kengen will also launch the balance of its 165.4 Mw Olkaria capacity at the end of this month, further widening the gap with Iceland. It also narrows the gap between Kenya and Italy, the “birthplace” of geothermal energy technology. KenGen plans to add another 1,745 Megawatts from geothermal by 2025. Coupled with generation from other producers, this will raise its geothermal generating capacity more than 2357 Mw, bringing Kenya, near neck to neck with the US. The United States is the current leader in geothermal generation with a capacity of 3,591 MW, says energy siren. www.energysiren.co.ke . Before then, there are three other giants to leapfrog. These...

Karuma Hydro Dam  in Uganda: More energy generation needed According to the Africa Development Bank’s Africa Economic Outlook for 2018, Africa needs to invest a total of US$1.2 trillion over the next seven years on productive and profitable infrastructure projects.   This works to an average spend of US$170 billion a year at the top end. Of this amount, the continent, through budgetary allocations and donor support, can manage $65 billion a year, leaving a yawning gap of US$105 billion or a total of $735 billion over the seven-year period. The AEO breaks down the sectoral needs as follows in order of priority: US$ 35-50 billion on energy, $35-47 billion on transport, and $55-66 billion on water and sanitation.   Africa is under increased pressure to invest in infrastructure in order to remove the inefficiencies that could stall the recently launched continent-wide free trade area. AfCFTA billed the largest free trade area in the world holds the key to Africa’s...