A just-completed geothermal project in Kenya could be a sign of things to come in Africa. The plan added 35 megawatts to an existing facility to total 48 MW of steamy, low-carb power.

Called Olkaria III, the site is expected to bring not only a badly needed source of reliable electricity, but to reduce imported oil by 120,000 tons and reduce CO2 emissions by 200,000 tons per year.

Ormat Technologies is the brains behind the operation - and the money as well, since they dropped $150 million into the well. Whenever I check in on the latest in rock power, Ormat comes up pretty often. I've written two posts in which this company surfaced, one about American enhanced geothermal and another concerning g-therm's hot investment market. Even in the current lousy economy, Ormat posted a 25% increase in revenue in this year's 3rd quarter. This is definitely a renewables firm to keep your eye on.

We'll be hearing alot more about African geothermal, especially in the highly active Rift Valley region. In fact, a new project called the African Rift Geothermal Development Facility (ARGeo) has identified 4,000 megawatts of natural geothermal capacity there.

Sweet photo by Flickr user Danflo.