In Hell’s Gate, a two-hour drive north of Nairobi, steam gushes out of the earth’s crust, generating a renewable form of energy that supplies almost half of Kenya’s current electricity needs. The steam is captured in miles of green pipes, which coil across the hillsides like giant pythons towards power stations that convert the volcanic energy into electricity.
What started as a quirky experiment 40 years ago is now a serious industry. Kenya has sufficient geothermal reserves to multiply its current installed capacity by at least eight times, according to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority, the country’s energy regulator. In theory that would give it the opportunity to massively ramp up renewable-powered industries from green manufacturing to green hydrogen.
