Akiira One Geothermal Power Station

The Akiira One Geothermal Power Station, is a proposed 70 MW geothermal power plant in Kenya, the largest economy in the East African Community.

Location
The facility is located in the Greater Olkaria Geothermal Area, about 12 km, by road, south of the existing Olkaria I Geothermal Power Station, and approximately 127 km, northwest of Nairobi, Kenya's capital and largest city.

Overview
Centum Investments, a Kenyan investment company, in conjunction with three other non-Kenyan entities, jointly plan to construct the Akiira Geothermal Power Station at a projected cost of US$300 million, using Akiira Geothermal Limited, the special-purpose company they jointly own. The power station will be developed in phases, with the first 70 megawatts coming on-line by December 2018 and the next 70 megawatts added to the national grid at a later date. In August 2015, Akiira Geothermal Limited signed a power purchase agreement with Kenya Power and Lighting Company, at a cost of 9.23 US cents per kilowatt hour.

Ownership
Akiira One Geothermal Power Station is owned by Akiira Geothermal Limited, a Kenyan limited liability company owned by Centum Investment Company Limited and three other non-Kenyan companies. The shareholding in Akiira Geothermal Limited is as depicted in the table below:

Construction funding
The total construction bill is budgeted at US $300 million (KSh30 billion). Of that, 30 percent will be sourced from shareholders while the remaining 70 percent will be borrowed from Standard Bank. Akiira has already received a KSh86 million grant from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in October 2014, as part of President Obama’s Power Africa programme. In January 2018, the European Investment Bank (EIB), offered to lend €155 million (KSh19.5 billion) on commercial terms, to fund the construction.