Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA)

POWERING AFRICAN AGRICULTURE

By: Willis Ambusso

Case Study

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This case study documents the success, impact, lessons learned, and recommended next steps for the Powering

African Agriculture (PAA) program conducted in several counties throughout Kenya from 2012 to 2015. PAA is

funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through an Associate Award to the

Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA). VEGA issued a sub-award to Land O’Lakes to implement the

project as the lead organization with Winrock International as an associate organization. The project’s primary

partner is the Geothermal Development Company (GDC), a government owned company whose primary role is to

explore and develop geothermal resources in Kenya.

BACKGROUND

The direct use (DU) of geothermal energy is a new concept in Kenya and has yet to be exploited. Geothermal

heating is the DU of geothermal energy for heating applications. DU in Kenya is expected to fill a major energy

demand gap in rural communities and reduce their reliance on fossil and other forms of polluting energies. The

current amount of power generated

by geothermal energy is only a small

fraction of the total national power

potential. It is estimated that close to

10,000 MWe1 in geothermal energy is

untapped. To hasten the rate of

development of this clean energy

source, the government of Kenya

formed the Geothermal Development

Company (GDC) to spearhead the

exploration and development of

geothermal energy.

In spite of the large amount of electrical power being produced by geothermal fields, communities living near

geothermal facilities do not benefit from the electricity being produced by geothermal resources. Due to this

disconnect between geothermal energy being produced and not benefitting local communities, USAID and GDC

initiated the PAA program. The goal of PAA is to assist the GDC develop projects where local communities benefit

directly from geothermal energy. DU of geothermal heat can be used only within a few kilometres of the source

and can be used for various activities to improve agriculture and living standards for members of local

communities. In addition, geothermal heat is renewable and clean. In Kenya, most geothermal resources are

located in arid or semi-arid areas with low rainfall and DU offers a reliable source of energy to small holder farmers

who are located in these areas.

Activities under the PAA program were originally designed to support the USAID programs of Feed The Future

(FTF) and the Global Climate Change (GCC) - initiatives whose objectives are to identify, commercialize and bring to

scale innovative energy solutions for cutting-edge agricultural applications in Sub-Saharan Africa so as to improve

food security and reduce poverty. In addition, PAA supported Power Africa, which was officially launched after the

1 MegaWatt of electricity.

GDC engineers inspecting heat exchanger coil

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start of PAA. Power Africa is an initiative to increase the number of people with access to power in sub-Saharan

Africa. Among the activities considered for PAA, geothermal energy was identified as a clean source of energy. In

particular, the potential of geothermal energy in Menengai being developed by GDC for power development was

chosen as a focus. In addition, PAA tied into and supported the GDC objective to promote geothermal DU

applications in Kenya. The project followed two phases. In the first phase, pre-feasibility and feasibility studies

were conducted to determine

opportunities of geothermal DU

application to support agricultural

productivity. During the second phase,

pilot projects will be launched to

demonstrate the viability of using

geothermal energy to power

agricultural and other activities. The

PAA program designed projects that

can be up scaled and replicated in

other areas with geothermal resources

and commercialised to clearly

demonstrate how geothermal energy can

be harnessed and used to support

agriculture.

To assist the GDC with meeting its objectives of promoting and demonstrating geothermal direct use application,

PAA supported the GDC by:

1. Illustrating that DU can be used to improve agricultural food production by using geothermal energy in

aquaculture, greenhouses, and milk processing.

2. Supporting GDC fully adopted DU as part of it energy development program thereby laying a firm

foundation for the future use of DU from geothermal energy in other locations in the country which is

nominally rural and lacks alternative forms of energy.

3. Building the capacity of GDC staff. Staff capacity was developed through a practical hands-on

mentorship program with energy and agriculture experts. Due to the capacity building approach of

PAA, GDC staff are competent in DU technology and are overseeing projects initiated under PAA.

Securing the approval of the county government of Nakuru, which is now considering supporting the program by

providing GDC with the land required to establish an industrial park. The local government organised investor

conferences to popularise and commercialize DU driven industries.

RESULTS

DU Pilot Project Development

The development of pilot projects is part of the core activities identified by GDC to directly benefit communities

living near geothermal facilities. PAA helped GDC set-up two pilot projects demonstrating the direct use of

cascading geothermal energy that will operate a greenhouse for growing high quality horticultural plants and also

run an aquaculture. This facility is anticipated to be fully operational in 2016.

Heat exchange bathtub construction

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PAA assembled and retrofitted a geothermal DU powered Laundromat for GDC near its camp in Menengai. This is

one of four other pilot projects that include a containerized dairy unit, mini-greenhouse and mini-aquaculture

units co-located at the MW03 well pad. These facilities alongside the laundromat will use a heating system from a

common heat exchanger that is currently being assembled on site.

Pre-feasibility Studies

Pre-feasibility studies for aquaculture, greenhouse, dairy pasteurization, and crop drying facilities were conducted

by PAA. These are scalable projects and can be turned in to feasibility studies in the future. In addition PAA,

alongside GDC staff, conducted a pre-feasibility study for establishing an abattoir and meat processing facilities.

The study focused on using DU in several livestock rich geothermal fields in semi-arid and arid lands where

domestic animals form the backbone of the local economy.

Geothermal Mega-Dairy

For geo-mega dairy, PAA developed a pre-feasibility study and a full feasibility report for an eco-dairy

demonstration unit. PAA is assisting GDC find an investor willing to establish a 250,000 litre capacity milk

processing plant at Menengai. Using the PAA dairy consultants as a resource, GDC has enlisted them to help

develop a Geothermal Mega Dairy facility with the Kenyan dairy industry in the Menengai area. It is envisioned

that a 200-litre milk pasteurization and cooling facility will be part of a launch demonstration.

Capacity Building

Improving the technical capacity of the GDC

was an integral component of PAA. There

were two modes of capacity building: 1) Study

tour which included short-term training for

staff at the Geo-Heat Centre in Oregon and 2)

Expert mentoring. The study tour included site

visits to see DU facilities first-hand including

the Oregon Institute of Technology. The

mentoring program entailed pairing experts

with GDC staff during the development of pre-

feasibility and feasibility studies, procurement of geo-thermal equipment, and assessment and design of pilot sites.

Each mode of capacity building was highly rated by GDC staff and served as a foundation for future GDC DU work.

Guide Book

The need for a DU guide book was requested by the GDC six months after the PAA program began. The initial focus

of the guide book changed over time at the request of GDC. Initially, the guide book focused illustrating DU

examples and was for GDC managers and planners. The guide book evolved to identify DU applications appropriate

for different regions in Kenya, to a training tool that the GDC could use in other countries in East Africa, and

ultimately as a reference guide. While the guide book evolved to meet the needs of the GDC, it is a tool that can be

shared with a wider community interested in DU applications.

Mentoring GDC Staff

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IMPACT

While the GDC is the primary partner and beneficiary under PAA, the program impacted other groups who are now

educated and interested in DU applications. These groups include: officials of the governments of Nakuru,

Baringo, and Narok counties, the area Member of Parliament, and local residents. Each group sees the potential

and advantages of DU and looks forward to its development and implementation.

GDC

i. The GDC adopted DU as an

integral part of its power

development strategy and will be

part of all geothermal exploration

activity. The company

management created a

geothermal DU department soon

after its inception headed by a

manager and staffed by a half

dozen engineers, scientists, and

agricultural economists. GDC is

considering upgrading the

department to a division once DU becomes fully operational.

ii. The GDC developed a draft policy to guide its DU activities during exploration, development and

exploitation of geothermal fields. One significant point in this draft policy states that all low

temperature geothermal fields shall be developed into DU projects while all high temperature

geothermal systems shall be developed for both power generation and DU.

iii. The GDC engaged a company based in one of the national Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Athi

River area east of Nairobi to help it design a similar zone in Nakuru County. This zone will be an

industrial park where it will deliver DU to utilities and also sell electrical power directly at a lower

tariff.

Local Government

i. The local government in Nakuru continues to express interest in supporting the geothermal project

initiated under PAA with an emphasis on DU as source of power for its upcoming activities.

ii. The local government in Baringo identified a piece of land for construction of an abattoir and a

meat processing facility close to Menengai that could use DU.

iii. The local government in Baringo relies on GDC staff to clarify its energy policy and has had GDC

officials accompany their officers on local and overseas investment trips. During these trips, GDC

staff explain to investors the expected lower costs of energy from DU.

Area Member of Parliament and Local Communities

The GDC created a community relations office. The main responsibility of the community relations office is

developing community-based initiatives to mobilize youth living in areas close to the current geothermal sites. In

turn, the youth will have the opportunity to join saving cooperatives that will collectively operate several low-heat

GDC engineer explaining reinforcement used

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DU projects such as aquaculture, greenhouses and fish hatcheries. These youth groups will work with the local

Member of Parliament who has supported these projects in anticipation of the unveiling of DU in Menengai.

PAA SPIN-OFFS

The original PAA concept considered a wide range of renewable energy technologies that could be applied to the

agricultural sector in support of the USAID Feed the Future Programs in Sub Saharan Africa. While PAA eventually

focused on geothermal development activities with GDC, work undertaken at the start of the program led to the

development of other programs now underway for solar refrigeration and water pumping.

SunDanzer Solar Chilling Project USAID PAEGC

As a direct result of PAA activities assessing the potential for applying DU for dairy, the Winrock team noticed the

problem of small holder dairy farmers in Kenya unable to chill milk on the farm due to the lack of electricity. Thus,

farmers were often unable to sell their evening milk production and were often forced to consume it or sell it to

neighbors or hawkers for less than its value. Winrock joined forces with Arizona based SunDanzer, the global

technology leader on solar refrigeration, to develop a practical and economical solar milk chilling system for

Kenyan dairy farmers. The team, led by SunDanzer, successfully won an award from the USAID Powering

Agriculture Energy Grand Challenge (PAEGC) and installed the first 40 pilot units in Mogotio and Ngorika dairy

cooperatives in March 2015.

Smallholder Solar Irrigation Project USAID RELWA

The USAID Renewable Energy Leader with Associates (RELWA) project is led by

Winrock in collaboration with DuPont Kenya and Amiran Kenya and supported by

Chase Bank and Equity Bank. The purpose of RELWA is to advance solar powered

irrigation in Kenya. The project concept was originally formulated with PAA and work

started under a new program in 2014 with the goal to increase the commercial sales

of solar irrigation pumps to smallholder farmers who could significantly increase their

incomes. The project is partnering with Kenyan companies such as SunCulture and

FuturePumps to disseminate wide scale deployment of solar water pumping systems

for smallholder farmer irrigation in rural Kenya.

LESSONS LEARNED

Communications

The PAA project involved no less than five different organizations including two US government

agencies, two US consortia of renown agricultural and energy experts, and the local partner - GDC.

Ensuring that these entities with different specializations worked harmoniously and effectively was a

major challenge of the program and required constant and ongoing communication among all

stakeholders. Further the program was conducted when the primary partner, GDC, was in the early

drilling phase of the Menengai geothermal field, a development phase that takes an average of five (5)

years to complete. Thus the three-year period initially set out for the PAA program, later cut to two and

then extended back to three, has been a relatively short time compared to the long development

Well test

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timeframes required for geothermal energy development. Setting realistic project goals and

communicating those goals with all the stakeholders is important. It is also important to form a working

group or committee that reviews progress being made towards the goal on a regular basis and revise

goals as needed.

PAA evolved over time with the role of the GDC becoming a primary partner more evident in years two

and three of the program. However, while PAA was a partnership between USAID and GDC, GDC was

under the assumption that the implementation of PAA was the responsibility of USAID. GDC was

expecting USAID to direct the program and it would benefit through learning. As a result of this

misunderstanding, most GDC officers were unaware that they had to approve PAA actions and this

contributed to approval delays. At the start of PAA, a kick-off meeting with key stakeholders and

participants would have been useful to clearly define each party’s role.

The initial PAA scope of work included not only geothermal work with the GDC, but was also designed

to expand renewable energy technologies and activities to other African countries. However, the first

year PAA work plan was never formally reviewed or circulated leading to misunderstandings about the

purpose of the program among key stakeholders. During its second year, PAA evolved towards working

exclusively with GDC and the scope of work was refined. While it is natural for a program to evolve

over time, the lack of a clear understanding about the purpose of the program at the beginning lead to

misunderstandings among the program stakeholders and ultimately, led to program delays.

Meeting Partner Requirements

The GDC required specific DU studies that supported their priorities to help impoverished communities.

Due to this requirement, some of the initial field surveys and studies undertaken by PAA covered a

much wider spectrum of potential DU users. Some of these potential DU users could not immediately

use DU unless they were part of a larger industrial park which is not yet established. As a result, pre-

feasibility studies could not be moved forward to feasibility, scaled-up, or implemented. However,

without the pre-feasibility assessments and determining process temperature requirements, it would

not be possible to know which industries were good candidates for DU. Prior to the development of the

project scope, it is important to understand the needs and objectives of each partner to ensure

activities tie into and support the goals of the program and meet the needs of all stakeholders.

Management

At the start of PAA, the Chief of Party was based in Washington, DC. With the project stakeholders

being based in Kenya, having a Washington, DC-based Chief of Party led to a significant loss of time in

communications between stakeholders. Organizing program activities was difficult and as the program

progressed, it was essential to have a locally based Chief of Party who could work directly with the GDC

on a daily basis. After the first year of PAA, a locally-based Chief of Party was appointed and

communications among stakeholders improved.

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NEXT STEPS

In order to continue to support the main goal of using geothermal facilities to provide DU to primarily rural

communities who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, several next steps are recommended.

Engagement

PAA’s most notable success is the further development of DU by the GDC as part of its geothermal energy

program. DU will have a lasting and effective presence in all geothermal development projects in the future.

Equally important is the supportive roles of the local government and the communities that see DU in a

commercial sense and are forming investment groups to set up aquaculture, greenhouses, and other DU

supported agricultural activities. It is important that local governments and communities continue to be engaged

and educated about geothermal energy to ensure their ongoing engagement and support.

Future DU Project Support at Scale

While there were several capacity building activities implemented for GDC staff, the GDC has not operationalized

DU. GDC’s operational skills are untested since no facilities are working and the pilot sites being planned are not at

the large scale envisioned. In the near future, more important and complicated tasks such as running and

operating an industrial park are yet to come. In addition, GDC recently lost some of its engineering staff and as a

result, does not have an adequate number of trained DU staff. It is therefore crucial that USAID and other

potential donors ensure that the GDC continues to receive adequate support as the GDC operationalizes DU.

Donor support may consist of: trainings, access to PAA partners and consultants to serve as trainers and mentors,

refinement of GDC strategic plan,

and support with investor

engagement.

Tea Processing Feasibility Study

The PAA program was only able

to conduct a rapid, short

assessment of the potential for

DU tea drying. This initial

assessment proved promising.

Since energy costs represent up

to half of the cost of Kenyan tea

production, alternatives such as geothermal

energy for improving the efficiency and reliability

of energy for Kenyan tea factories can have a dramatic competitive advantage. Presently, unsustainably

harvested wood is used to provide process heat for tea for about 70 KTDA tea factories using about 2,500

m3/month of wood per factory, which generates large CO2 emissions and is a major contributor to Kenyan

highlands deforestation. Given the proximity of the main Kericho tea factories to known geothermal fields (70

to120 km), it appears quite feasible according to KTDA to transport the tea to geothermal energy sites. There are

also a number of tea factories located by the Nyanzi rift that may also have direct access to as yet unexplored

geothermal resources. Geothermal tea processing merits a full feasibility study to fully understand the potential

and impacts for applying geothermal DU for tea.

PAA Consultant Bruce Knight with GDC Engineers at the aqua pilot site under construction

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Dr. Willis Ambusso is a highly experienced petroleum, geothermal and renewable energy expert with over twenty

five years of training, teaching and work experience in geothermal and petroleum reservoir engineering, applied

geophysics, numerical modelling, well testing and production. Dr. Ambusso is currently undertaking research on

direct use of geothermal fluids in domestic and industrial settings and is actively involved in application of

computational methods geothermal reservoir modelling and pollutant transport from emissions from geothermal

wells. Dr. Ambusso is Conversant with geothermal and petroleum exploration, reservoir characterization,

resource evaluation, development planning, energy economics and geothermal power plant business planning.

He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and holds a Ph.D. in physics from Kenyatta University.

The Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) is the

world’s largest member-directed consortium of nonprofit

economic growth organizations that designs and delivers high

impact programs, incorporating skilled volunteer professionals

into its work with donors, philanthropic institutions, private

enterprise, and developing country organizations. VEGA was

established as a 501(c)3 organization in 2004 through a United States

Agency for International Development’s Leader with Associate Award. When it began a decade ago, VEGA was established

as a rapid and efficient mechanism that utilized a competitive process to award USAID funding to its member organizations.

Now, VEGA continues to champion its model and its alliance members’ breadth of expertise to other partners.

VEGA supported the research and publication of this case study as part of its commitment to knowledge management and

sharing lessons learned among its member organizations and the international development community.

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Since 1981, Land O’Lakes International Development has applied an integrated approach to international economic development that capitalizes on our company’s 93 years as a leading farm-to-market agribusiness. We use our practical experience and in-depth knowledge to facilitate market-driven business solutions that generate economic growth, improve health and nutrition, and alleviate poverty. We believe in the value of people and ensuring our work is rooted in honesty, integrity and respect. Our vision is to be a global leader in transforming lives by engaging in agriculture and enterprise partnerships that replace poverty with prosperity, and dependency with self-reliance. Funded primarily by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), our programs not only improve production and food security for smaller farming operations, but they foster innovation, market linkages, and strengthen the private sector. Core to this effort is helping farmers move from subsistence to farming as a business, and working to make small and growing enterprises more attractive for investment. To date, our efforts have improved the quality of life for millions of people in 80 nations through more than 280 projects and training initiatives.

Winrock International is a nonprofit organization that works with people in the United States and around the world to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity, and sustain natural resources. By linking local individuals and communities to new ideas and technology, we seek to increase long-term productivity, equity, and responsible resource management to benefit the poor and disadvantaged. A registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Winrock was formed in 1985 with an endowment from the Rockefeller family through the merger of three non-profit organizations: the Agricultural Development Council, which played a critical role in education and development for institutions in Asia; the Winrock International Livestock Research and Training Center, which conducted research and technical training in animal science; and the International Agricultural Development Service, which provided technical assistance in agricultural production and rural development. Today, Winrock has over 950 staff around the world and is delivering solutions in agriculture, clean water and energy, forestry and natural resource management, leadership development and capacity building to achieve sustainable and equitable development.

The case study is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of VEGA and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United

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States Government.