GRMF HEAT offers funding for East Africa geothermal exploration

Skyline of Kampala, capital of Uganda (source: flickr/ Todd Huffman, creative commons)

The Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF) for East Africa under the African Union Commission’s Regional Geothermal Coordinate Unit (RGCU) has a funding opportunity available for surface studies and infrastructure costs required for surface exploration of geothermal prospects in Eastern Africa for direct use applications.

THE GRMF HEAT funding programme is currently accepting Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the funding opportunity. EOIs will be accepted until 16 March 2023, 16:00H Ethiopian time. Meanwhile, inquiries about the pre-application process shall be sent to grmf@africa-union.org and grmf@roedl.com and will be accepted only until 2 March 2023.

The eligible activities under the programme include:

• geophysical surveys and supplementary geological, hydrogeological and/or geochemical surveys;
• shallow temperature gradient wells provided they are drilled on non-permanent well pads;
• infrastructure costs related to surface exploration such as access roads and water supply;
• feasibility study regarding the exploitation of the resource and the available market for direct use applications;
• preparation of integrated resource report including a temperature gradient map and conceptual model of the resource, and identification of high-priority drilling sites.

The fund will cover up to 80% of approved surface study costs and up to 20% of approved infrastructure costs.

GRMF had previously offered funding for geothermal power generation projects in East Africa under the GRMF POWER programme. This programme has now awarded funding for 18 surface studies and 22 drilling projects in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, Tanzania, and Comoros.

Source: GRMF East Africa