Kenya · Infrastructure
From Olkaria to Menengai, how Kenya passed 1,000 MW of geothermal capacity
Kenya’s geothermal capacity rose from 943.7 MW to 1,013.7 MW in the year to June 2026. Two 35 MW projects at Menengai in Nakuru County accounted for the increase. The project timeline connects those additions to the units that built up Olkaria, and the table tracks five years of national geothermal electricity production.
Sources checked
- June 1981Olkaria I unit 1. Commissioned, 15 MW.
- November 1982Olkaria I unit 2. Commissioned, 15 MW.
- March 1985Olkaria I unit 3. Commissioned, 15 MW.
- 2003Olkaria II first two units. Commissioned, 70 MW.
- May 2010Olkaria II third unit. Construction completed, 35 MW.
- December 2014Olkaria IV. Commissioned, 140 MW.
Show 6 more dates
- February 2015Olkaria I units 4 and 5. Commissioned, 140 MW.
- July 2022Olkaria V. Officially commissioned, 172 MW.
- July 2022Olkaria I additional unit 6. Officially commissioned, 86 MW.
- December 2023Globeleq Menengai. Financial close, 35 MW.
- 2025/26Kaishan Menengai. Grid addition recorded by EPRA, 35 MW.
- 2025/26Globeleq Menengai. Grid addition recorded by EPRA, 35 MW.
Capacity entries identify the unit or project associated with each dated event.
Olkaria grew through successive units
KenGen records three 15 MW units for the original Olkaria I station, commissioned between June 1981 and March 1985. Olkaria II opened with two 35 MW units in 2003, and construction of a third finished in May 2010. Subsequent steps were larger. Olkaria IV and Olkaria I units 4 and 5 each added 140 MW of project capacity at their respective 2014 and 2015 milestones. Source 2
Menengai adds generation at a second field
The regulator recorded the 35 MW Kaishan and 35 MW Globeleq plants as grid additions in 2025/26. Globeleq’s project documentation identifies a 25-year steam supply arrangement with the state-owned Geothermal Development Company and a power purchase agreement of the same duration with Kenya Power. The contracts separate supply of the geothermal steam from the sale of electricity produced by the plant. Source 1 Source 3
Financial close and power supply have separate dates
Globeleq reports signing financing agreements in December 2022, breaking ground in June 2023 and reaching financial close in December 2023. It reports mobilising construction teams in January 2024. EPRA places the added capacity in the financial year ending June 2026. The timeline carries both financial close and the regulator’s reporting period because each answers a different question about project delivery. Source 1 Source 3
Installed capacity and effective grid capacity differ
At June 2026, EPRA recorded 1,009.98 MW of installed geothermal capacity in the interconnected system and 3.70 MW of captive capacity. It reported 876.10 MW of effective geothermal capacity in the interconnected system. Compare the two grid figures on the same system boundary. Adding the captive figure expands the scope to national installed capacity. Source 1
Generation rose by more than 700 GWh
National geothermal generation rose from 5,718.15 GWh in 2024/25 to 6,420.51 GWh in 2025/26, an increase of 702.36 GWh, or 12.28%. Geothermal accounted for 40.91% of total energy supplied that year in EPRA’s figures. Installed MW describe the available plant rating at a date, while GWh measure energy delivered over the year. The generation figures cover the whole geothermal fleet. Source 1