Important contract for NABA member Green Energy Group

Kenya’s national power provider, KenGen, has signed an agreement with the Norwegian company Green Energy Group AS, worth approximately USD 93 million for a minimum of 12 geothermal wellhead power plants, delivering over 65MW.The contract has been awarded following Green Energy Group’s successful delivery of a “proof of concept” plant to KenGen, which has been providing power into the Kenyan grid since April 2012.

We have been able to prove our technology, and we won this contract despite severe competition with other players.

Terje Laugerud, CEO of Green Energy Group AS, comments.Installation of the first of the new power plants will be completed in Q1 2013, and delivery of the entire 65MW will be completed during 2013 and 2014.Green EnergyGeothermal power plants are based on technology which utilizes the Earth’s own internal energy and converts it into electricity. The earth’s core has a temperature of  5000°C  and approximately 99 percent of the earth’s mass has a temperature of more than 1000°C. Unimaginable amounts of energy are stored in the ground below our feet and can be utilized in a highly cost effective and environment friendly way.What we call “geothermal energy” consists of large reservoirs of high temperature water built up where the tectonic plates of the earth’s crust come together or slide apart.Here the magma has a shorter distance to the surface and because of the cracks in the crust, water flows in and steam is formed under high pressure. Wells are drilled into these reservoirs, usually to a depth of 2.5-3.5 kilometers, and the high-pressure steam surfaces. The steam is separated from the water and is harnessed to uniquely designed turbines that generate electricity. Since water continues to flow into these reservoirs they may never be depleted, although where required, the separated water can be re-injected back into the reservoirs.Geothermal energy is a highly cost effective and environmentally friendly power source with many advantages over other forms of power generation, most notably its almost zero CO2 emissions. Since the technology utilizes energy from within the earth the power has a high degree of availability and is not dependent on the frequency of periodically returning power sources, like wind and solar power. For these reasons geothermal power plants can maintain continuous, predictable production around the clock. Green Energy’s productTraditional geothermal power plants require multiple wells, extensive design work, long construction periods and entail large upfront investments to cover the 4-6 years before power generation can occur. Once in place these are major fixed constructions which are immobile should the power source become depleted or fail.Green Energy’s approach is to provide small, independent wellhead power plants, which through their unique modular design can be delivered ready-made in 40-foot ISO containers. The patent pending design differentiates itself from traditional solutions in that the plants relatively small footprint means that the plants can be located on wells inaccessible to traditional plants. In addition the turbines can be configured to each well’s unique characteristics, thus optimizing power output.The modular based solution is faster and easier to deploy and energy can be produced much earlier in the development cycle providing quicker returns to investors. They can operate independently or be organized in farms to provide an equivalent resource to larger traditional power plants.Based on standard components, they can easily be decommissioned and transported to a new well should the existing well begin to deplete or fail. Equally importantly, the failed well can easily be returned to its original state thus preserving the environment.Promising marketsKenya still has extensive geothermal resource potential and a large demand for electricity. There are identified resources of more than 7,000 MW, which would cover Kenya’s demand for the next 20 years and their goal is to develop this within 2025. As of today only some 170-200 MW of this is utilized.

In general we see a large potential for our technology in markets such as Asia, East Africa and South America. Indonesia alone has identified 28,100 MW of geothermal potential, making it one of the worlds largest markets for this type of energy.

Terje Laugerud, CEO of Green Energy Group AS, concludes.About Green Energy Group ASGEG was founded in early 2008 and is headquarted in Oslo, Norway with its engineering and technical team based in Reykjavik, Iceland. The highly experienced executive team at GEG has assembled a team commanding a wealth of experience within the design, engineering, project management and operation of geothermal plants and is supported by a Board of Directors drawn from both investment banking and the engineering sector. The company is focused on delivering turnkey 3.2 MW to 6.4 MW flash type modular power plants.