The “Geothermal Village” (GV) aims to introduce geothermal-based stand-alone electric and thermal energy systems to off-grid African communities. GV proposes a geothermal exploitation in a cascade mode, from electricity production from hot geothermal fluids, to thermal energy direct use from lower temperature fluids for a large variety of applications, based on the local needs and income sources.

The Homa Hills in western Kenya were selected by the GV team as one of the 4 sites representative of the diversity of the geothermal systems in the East African Rift System (EARS), within the 4 participating African countries in the project (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda).

Two missions were carried out by WP11 partners in March and April 2022 to engage fieldwork, led by SEPCO (Kenya) with UL, UBO and Géo2D researchers. This work consisted in the sampling of geothermal waters, gas and rocks and in the subsurface imaging below the geothermal springs. The social sciences component of GV will visit Homa Hills to understand the local demand in terms of energy in order to adapt at most the GV project response.