- The Kingdom of Eswatini and Kenya have been termed Commonwealth geothermal energy and energy literacy champions.
In a meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Kigali, two countries were selected as champions in the Commonwealth Sustainable Energy Transition agenda. According to a dispatch from the Commonwealth, Kenya and Eswatini will, in their new roles, lead in forming voluntary coalitions of member states willing to work together to develop geothermal energy and literacy strategies.
Commonwealth deputy secretary-general Arjoon Suddhoo noted that the initiative is Commonwealth’s flagship for accelerating the global energy transition. “Our Commonwealth is blessed with a wealth of precious natural resources, including renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, tidal and wave energy. However, our shared economic recovery will depend upon learning from the past and continuing to learn from one other as we build a better future.
“The SDGs point the way, particularly SDG7 on sustainable energy, SDG13 on climate change and SDG14 concerning the ocean: Maximising the untapped potential of geothermal energy,” Suddhoo said.
KenGen Managing Director and CEO Rebecca Miano said Kenya is pleased to take the lead to champion the action group on geothermal energy under the CSET Agenda. “Globally, geothermal energy makes up less than 1% of renewable energy sources, but the significant potential exists to increase this to make geothermal baseload by 2050.”
According to a local news report, the Commonwealth dispatch said four Commonwealth member countries had installed geothermal energy. New Zealand and Kenya have the highest installed capacity at 984 MW and 823.8 MW, respectively, followed by Papua New Guinea (56 MW) and Australia (0.31 MW).