Globeleq announced that it has reached financial close on their US$117 million 35MW Menengai geothermal project in Nakuru County, Kenya. Globeleq will shortly issue a notice to proceed to the engineering, procurement and construction contractor, Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC) and their fully owned subsidiary CFAO Kenya Limited, who will start construction activities in the coming weeks.
Globeleq’s Menengai project will be the company’s first geothermal plant. It will deliver clean, reliable, and affordable baseload power to the national grid and enable GDC to monetize the available steam resources from the Menengai steam field. Steam will be supplied to the project by GDC under a 25-year project implementation and steam supply agreement. Globeleq will operate and maintain the power plant once it reaches commercial operations in 2025. Once operational, electricity will be sold to Kenya Power, the national distribution company, under a 25-year power purchase agreement.
Globeleq is building a substantial business in Kenya where it already owns and operates the 52 MWp Malindi Solar PV plant which is located north of Mombasa. The Group is looking to expand the Malindi Solar plant with 40MWac of additional solar capacity and 40MW/40MWh battery storage.
Mike Scholey, Globeleq’s CEO, said: “Menengai is an excellent example of how lenders and independent power producers can work with Governments to successfully harness natural resources and generate clean and reliable power. We are excited to be starting construction on our first geothermal power plant and look forward to other opportunities in the region. I would also like to thank our partner GDC, the senior lenders at AfDB, Finnfund and TDB, our EPC contractor, TTC, and our offtaker, Kenya Power, for the achievement of this important milestone and their patience during the process.”