‘Our contribution to a cleaner world’: How Kenya found an extraordinary power source beneath its feet

Steam rises from the chimneys of a power plant at the Olkaria geothermal complex in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Kenyan stretch of the Great Rift Valley is breathtaking. Vast plains between the two escarpments teem with wildlife, creating one of the world’s largest animal migrations – the Mara-Serengeti wildebeest migration. The alkaline lakes in the east African rift system are home to elegant and graceful flamingos, pink wonders that reels in visitors from around the world and are a vital cog in Kenya’s thriving tourism industry.

But it is what lies beneath the valley floor that has had a literally seismic impact on Kenya in recent years – vast geothermal resources that have made the country a world leader in clean energy.