Context
The technical assistance for direct use of geothermal energy in low to medium temperature geothermal systems was requested by six African countries in the Eastern Africa region. The countries lie within the Great East African Rift Valley (both at the eastern and western branches), a region that possesses a remarkable geothermal energy resource potential that can be used for power generation and direct use application.
The region, save for Kenya and slightly Ethiopia, taking advantage of the resource in terms of what-Power generation or direct use. The main challenges attributed to this slow uptake being limited financial, technical expertise and inadequate policy and legal framework to guide the energy sector. Most of the countries however have conducted various surface exploration of the geothermal resources. These studies include inventories of potential geothermal resources sites and geoscientific studies to establish the existence of viable geothermal systems for direct and indirect utilization. The technical assistance is thus expected to take advantage of these pre-existing data and information.
CTCN Support
- To conduct a study on direct use applications of geothermal energy (development of implementation planning and communication documents, identification of the most suitable direct use applications, identification of direct use geothermal energy harnessing technologies, market and economic assessment on the viability of the identified technologies, capacity building on the identified technologies)
Expected Impact
Strengthened capacity of national geothermal experts through training and regional knowledge sharing. The implementation of the assistance will see accelerated efforts in the region to utilize geothermal energy. The pre-feasibility study will inform the decision makers on the viability of the resource and develop a clear and harmonized policies and means of implementation that leads to action.