Olkaria I is a 185 MW geothermal power station in Nakuru, Kenya. It is operated by Kenya Electric Generating Company. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 347,271 homes (estimated). It ranks #3 of 23 Kenya power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1981, it is around 45 years old — long-established. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, geothermal supplies about 45.9% of Kenya's electricity; the national grid averages 95 gCO₂/kWh (90.0% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1061218.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Kenya Electric Generating Company. All plants by this company →
This geothermal plant taps underground heat to raise steam that drives a turbine. It sits in a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 0.9°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 79% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 21/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
In colder climates, uninsulated hot equipment (boilers, turbines, valves, steam lines) loses proportionally more heat to ambient air — exactly the loss Inzonex modular insulation is designed to cut.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
The #1 largest geothermal power plant of 6 in Kenya by capacity.
Kenya has 6 geothermal power plants in this dataset, together about 754 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -0.8933, 36.3086 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
