| Abstract |
Kenya and the East African region countries are endowed with vast, non-polluting geothermal energy resource occurring along the East African Rift System. In Kenya, the potential is estimated at over 7,000-10,000MWe. The development of this enormous resource has, however, been slow mainly due to lack of expertise in geothermal resource development, lack of proper equipment and lack of adequate funding. Taking into consideration the present and especially the future demand of developing this green indigenous source of energy, specialists in the fields of exploration, exploitation and utilization of geothermal energy will be required. The Geothermal Development Company Ltd (GDC) has taken a bold step in establishing of a Geothermal Training Institute (GTI) to offer courses in geothermal technology in Kenya in order to address this problem. GDC has few well trained professionals in all fields that will be used as resource persons. In addition, GDC will have fields, laboratories, workshops and equipments including drilling rigs to handle the training effectively. GDC in collaboration with United Nations University-Geothermal Training Program (UNU/GTP) and Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited (KenGen) have successfully held short courses on Geothermal exploration in Kenya before and therefore it has the necessary experience. The courses that will be offered at the Geothermal Training Institute will include, short courses of 2-3 months mainly for practicing professionals leading to certificates, medium term courses of 3-6 months for advanced training leading to awards of diploma certificates and long term courses of 6 months to 2 years specifically tailored for research students pursuing geothermal related disciplines in Sciences and Engineering. GDC is already developing the curriculum in collaboration with UNU/GTP. |