NZ geothermal skills play crucial role in East AfricaSponsored
The story of New Zealand’s energy industry is incomplete without considering the reach it has globally, particularly in the geothermal sector. New Zealand has had a significant impact in developing the global geothermal industry. The direct reduction of carbon emissions by international geothermal projects we have enabled is equal in magnitude to all of New Zealand’s net carbon dioxide emissions (about 12 MT/year). East Africa is one of the key regions that our industry has been supporting for 50 years and a good example of how our export technology has been applied. So how and why is it that we became so involved in a region half a world away?
Looking back, geothermal technology developed in a boom of international research from the 1950s to the 1970s with New Zealand, the USA, Japan, Italy, and Iceland, each nurturing research and development centres but with high levels of collaboration between them. There was excitement at developing a new technology that promised to provide abundant power for their home countries. But many of the early pioneers and their managers also recognised the potential for geothermal to assist development in other regions.
While still crafting the early skills for exploration, drilling and development of geothermal, the New Zealand geothermal pioneers began supporting development assistance projects in Asia, Latin America and Africa. The New Zealand geothermal systems were "wet" compared to the dry steam producing systems developed earlier in the 20th century in the USA and Italy. Our researchers developed the skills for dealing with the steam-water mixtures produced at Wairakei (located in the Taupō Volcanic Zone in the central North Island of New Zealand), which proved key to unlocking the global geothermal potential. Private enterprise also saw an opportunity to sell specialist skills developed locally, onto an international stage, and use the core specialist technology as a vehicle to sell other services such as construction, engineering, and capacity development. This early work evolved into a mix of government supported and private sector activity from New Zealand in a growing international geothermal industry.
By the 1970s, New Zealand had become a global leader in geothermal technology. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) looked to our government agencies (Ministry of Works and DSIR) for technical leadership with its geothermal exploration and drilling campaigns in Chile and Kenya. Ministry of Works drilling engineer, Neville Dench, was assigned to Kenya in the early 1970s to lead the fledgling geothermal drilling programme at Olkaria. This was to be the beginnings of a 50-year involvement by New Zealand in geothermal development at Olkaria and in the East Africa region.
While British and Icelandic consultants engineered the first Olkaria I 45 MW power plant using wells drilled by Neville Dench’s team, New Zealand company GENZL delivered successive contracts for ongoing drilling and steam field design in the 1980s. GENZL, which was established by McConnel Dowell, Ceramco, Worley Consultants and Tonkin and Taylor as a vehicle for exporting New Zealand skills, managed the drilling for much of the Olkaria II plant and designed and managed the construction of extensive piping for connecting additional wells to Olkaria I. They also had the overall management and technical design and supervision contract for exploration drilling of the new Eburru project near Olkaria from 1988 to 1991. They later helped private developer Ormat with its first 48 MW development at Olkaria.
New Zealand consultant SKM (now Jacobs) won the owner's engineer role (including total steam field design) for building the Olkaria II power plant in 2 stages (76 MW and 38 MW) during the 1990s through to 2010 and had a similar role (including transmission line) for the Olkaria IAU and Olkaria IV plants (2 x 140 MW) commissioned in 2014 and 2015. MTL, based in Auckland and other New Zealand engineering providers, are currently finalising designs for an additional steam field, feeding a further 70 + 165 MW of new generating plant in Olkaria.
These decades of work have seen Olkaria develop into one of the three largest geothermal developments in the world, with over 700 MW installed by Kengen, the state-owned developer/operator, and 140 MW by Ormat, a private power developer. Olkaria is now meeting about 45 per cent of Kenya’s power demand for the 35 million people connected to the electricity grid. At the same time, we have seen that geothermal has been displacing fossil fuels in the country, which has no further hydro potential and only a few wind power sites, to meet the growing demand for clean power. While awaiting the major construction phase at Olkaria, several heavy fuel oil power plants were constructed, and some of these have now been dismantled.
There was a similar beginning for geothermal exploration in Ethiopia, with several prospect areas being identified in the Rift Valley and explored by UNDP teams in the 1970s. The Aluto project was selected for drilling that began in 1980, with GENZL managing the drilling and well testing. GENZL went on to be owner’s engineer for the 7.3 MW power plant that was eventually completed in 1998.
Alongside this direct technical engagement, capacity development, primarily from Auckland University's Geothermal Institute, has contributed to the ongoing development and self-sufficiency of the geothermal industry in the region. Ninety-six students from the region, comprising about 15 per cent of the total cohort over the first 25 years of the Institute's operation, came from the region for the year-long geothermal diploma course. The relationships and trust developed by students with the New Zealand industry played an important role in enabling the deeper support that the New Zealand industry could provide.
An example of wider and diverse engagement growing from this trust, was a recent exchange with Kenya regarding community involvement in geothermal projects. Contact Energy (as developer) and the Tauhara North No2 Trust (as kaitiaki of geothermal resource) made several visits to Kenya and hosted Kenyan’s to New Zealand to share our learnings on community engagement and involvement in geothermal projects. This seems to have helped ease some land issues at Olkaria. Such approaches have potential to be enabling for many projects we see globally.
Based on this long successful partnership in Kenya and the transformational potential geothermal energy has for social and economic development, the New Zealand Aid Programme delivered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) has invested in geothermal support for the East African region. The New Zealand-Africa Geothermal Facility programme partners with the Africa Union to provide niche technical expertise and assistance to support East African partners plan, prepare and implement their geothermal projects. It gives strong focus to training and capacity development for the organisations tasked with geothermal development.
Kenya’s success has offered good examples to neighbouring countries, particularly Ethiopia, Djibouti and Tanzania which are utilising technical expertise provided under the New Zealand-Africa Geothermal Facility to prepare their own drilling programmes.
Technical expertise is sourced from a cross-section of our industry, including Auckland University, Contact Energy, Jacobs and JRG Energy and others, and with potential yet for more. Despite Covid-19 eliminating the opportunity for travel, innovations in technology have allowed ongoing delivery of advice and knowledge transfer to partners throughout their programmes. In some cases, it has even allowed for a wider reach than face to face contact for capacity development activities.
Clearly, geothermal has played an enormous role in reducing carbon emissions and enabling increased access to electricity in Kenya, and New Zealand's contribution to this is substantial. There is still considerable room for this success to be replicated in that region, particularly in Ethiopia, which has massive raw geothermal energy resource potential. This is the reasoning for sustaining New Zealand's targeted application of niche geothermal skills for development assistance to the region. It is also an ongoing opportunity for the commercial deployment of skills from our industry in a competitive market for engineering and advisory services.
Geothermal is one key area that New Zealand has an advantage in being a part of the global transition to cleaner energy. So this is an opportunity for the New Zealand brand to be recognised wherever there is the need for our assistance, even if it is half a world away, and not what may seem a traditional “export market".
Access to electricity in Kenya has improved massively in just the last 25 years, now supplying 35 million people (70% of Kenya’s population). Geothermal has been a large part of the associated growth of generation in Kenya and now provides 45% of Kenya's power. So the New Zealand industry has had a clear role in enabling this development goal.
Olkaria IV geothermal power plant in operation 2015
Written by Greg Ussher, Geothermal Specialist at Jacobs.
About Greg Ussher
Greg Ussher has 40 years working in the geothermal industry as an exploration scientist, development planner and educator. He was initially engaged with GENZL working in the Azores, Kenya, Indonesia, Japan and in the last 20 years with Jacobs has since undertaken work throughout Latin America , the USA, Europe, Ethiopia, Iceland, and New Zealand. Greg had a central role with developing the application of Magnetotellurics (MT) surveys, one of the key modern advancements in geothermal exploration now used universally throughout the industry. As a geothermal enthusiast and promoter of geothermal’s role in the energy transition, he is involved with evolving the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC) system and its application to geothermal and renewable energy more generally.
Greg running a course in Africa
About Jacobs
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