Stakeholders from across Africa and beyond gathered at the "Towards Energy Transition in Africa through Geothermal Energy Development" a side event of Africa Climate Summit 2023 took place on the 5th September 2023, discuss accelerating geothermal energy development on the continent. The Summit highlighted geothermal energy's crucial role in supporting Africa's energy transition goals through a stable, renewable and indigenous energy source.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Kamugisha Kazaura, Director for Infrastructure and Energy at the African Union Commission, outlined the significant geothermal potential across the East Africa Rift System to power socio-economic growth for decades to come. However, Dr. Kazaura noted that development has been too slow due to perceived risks that can be mitigated.
To address this, the African Union launched the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF) ten years ago to de-risk geothermal projects and encourage more private sector participation. Since then, the Facility has supported the exploration and appraisal of several geothermal prospects.
As climate impacts intensify droughts and reduce hydropower output, leaders agreed that accelerating geothermal development is vital for energy security and a just transition. The Summit called for a bold action from all stakeholders to unlock Africa's vast untapped geothermal potential, estimated at over 20GW, and support Africa's renewable energy growth well into the future.
During the meeting, panellists shared their countries' experiences in terms of expanding the development and utilization of indigenous geothermal energy resources to boost energy access and transition towards cleaner energy sources.
While Africa is endowed with huge renewable energy resources, many remain underdeveloped. Sources like wind and solar have variability issues without storage. Hydropower is also vulnerable to climate impacts, as seen by recent droughts severely affecting generation. Geothermal energy provides a stable, baseload alternative and can balance intermittent renewables by providing grid services.
Furthermore, Dr. Kazaura, spoke of the ongoing initiatives to mobilize partners and resources towards realizing geothermal potential across the continent for sustainable development.
About GRMF
The Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF) was established in 2012 to fund, facilitate, and accelerate geothermal development in Eastern Africa. The overall objective of the GRMF is to encourage public and private sector investment in geothermal power generation. The GRMF therefore acts as a catalyst in establishing geothermal energy as a strategic option for power generation capacity expansion in twelve partner countries in the Eastern African Rift region.
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The facility co-finances Surface Studies and Drilling Programmes aimed at developing geothermal energy projects - being a largely untapped indigenous and renewable energy resource. The GRMF comprises approx. 131 million USD of awarded funds.
In 2022, the GRMF Oversight Committee decided to expand the facility to include the promotion of geothermal direct use. For this purpose, the new GRMF HEAT funding programme was introduced.
GRMF offers funding in 12 eligible East African countries: Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia
