SEOUL, KOREA - Hyundai Engineering has completed the world's largest geothermal power plant in Kenya.

The company said on October 19 that it held an opening ceremony on the 17th at Naivasha, a town 90 kilometers northwest of Nairobi, with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) president Albert Mugo, and Hyundai Engineering president Kim Wee-chul in attendance. The Olkaria IV power plant project cost the Kenyan government US$370 million.

 

This is the second geothermal power plant project for Hyundai Engineering after the Darajat project in Indonesia. The Olkaria project consists of four power plants. Of these, the Korean company took the job of expanding the first one and building the fourth one from scratch in 2011. Once it completes the expansion project by the end of this year, the Olkaria plants will be able to generate additional 280 megawatts of electricity.

 

The Olkaria IV project worth $130 million was co-financed by the Kenyan government through KenGen, as well as the World Bank, the French Agency for Development (AFD), and the European Investment Bank, among others. The project which include Olkaria I to IV is being developed by KEC of India, Toyota Tshusho of Japan, Hyundai Engineering and Sinclair Knight Merz of New Zealand.