Award for geothermal power station
Award for geothermal power station
As the "Best EMEA Sustainability Deal 2008", the journal "emeafinance" elected the DEG financing of Olkaria III, a geothermal power station in Kenya. DEG arranged the complete debt financing required for the extension of the power station to the amount of 105 million US-dollars, which several financing institutions contributed funds to. Together with KfW Entwicklungbank, DEG provided the owner and operator, Orpower 4 Inc., with a long-term loan of 40 million US-dollars. Thanks to the financing arranged by DEG, the capacity of Olkaria III could be increased from 13 to 48 megawatts so that three and a half times the amount of electricity can be generated.
East Africa offers an enormous geothermal potential. Kenya and other countries in the region are working on an increased utilisation of geothermal energy. It is intended to clearly extend the supply through so-called IPPs, Independent Power Producers. As the only private geothermal IPP in Africa, Olkaria III takes a pioneering role.
