The Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment (OPIC), a development finance institution of the U.S. Government, has offered their approval for $310 million finance for doubling the power generation capability of an existing geothermal power plant located in Kenya.
The green technology while improving the eco-friendly power generation capability of the plant will also create a number of related job opportunities in the USA and Kenya.
Recovered Energy Generation from Cement Plants. Credit: Ormat Technologies
OrPower 4, an auxiliary of Nevada-based Ormat Technologies, chosen for the project will utilize the OPIC finance to add up to 52 MW to the existing 48 MW power generation capability of the Olkaria geothermal plant located in the Rift Valley of Kenya and located around 75 km northwest of Nairobi. The development process will include changes in the present plant, improvement to the steam gathering and injection system located at the plant and improvement of the existing geothermal reservoir to meet the level of expansion.
During the power generation improvement process at the geothermal plant Ormat will deploy its own binary cycle technology, which uses air-cooled Organic Rankine cycle turbines powered using heat energy from the geothermal fluid drawn out of geothermal reserves. The re-pouring of cooled water into the geothermal reservoir makes negligible impact on the milieu during the geothermal power generation process and limits the requirement of outside water use.
The project anticipated to produce over 55 new job positions locally, which include 28 unskilled and 26 skilled professional positions. Also the resulted $82 million initial U.S. procurement will support indirect employment of around 212 person-years and direct employment of around 323 person-years in addition to supporting around 107 jobs in the USA.