CRC TRR 228 Project C02
Energy Futures
Infrastructures and governance for renewable energies
C02 Energy Futures
Vision
Develop a better understanding how Kenya’s superior renewable-energy resources become associated with green industrialization and how their valorization leads to socio-economic changes for affected populations.
Project Summary
In the third phase of the CRC228, project C02 will extend its research on renewable-energy futures and widen its scope to include related industrial developments and further economic and financial impacts, particularly along the geothermal value chain, and based on three case studies. Given that Kenya continues to develop into a global role model for renewable-energy transformation and generates almost 90% of its electricity from renewable sources, it is essential to study the (local) economic consequences of this success story in more detail. In two economic-geography case studies, we will look at how the production of renewable electricity as well as geothermal heat and steam become the basis for future-making in the form of (green) industrial development visions, plans and investments in geothermal project areas. This can include the planning and establishment of nearby industrial parks, direct-use activities of various kinds as well as green-hydrogen production and further use along industrial and agricultural value chains. In the two case studies – direct use and green hydrogen – we will analyse who are the actors and institutions driving and developing, or criticizing and opposing, these visions and plans. We will examine conflicts and controversies around these developments, whether and how they are financed and implemented (or not), what are the expected or realized benefits and who are the (potential) beneficiaries. We will explore these issues from a multiscalar and comparative perspective to scrutinize the renewable energy– green industrialization nexus, associated value chains and their cross-scale geographies of supply and demand, financing and policy support. In the anthropology case study, we will focus on the household and community level, and on how geothermal project developments affect local communities economically and financially. To this end, we will do an in-depth ethnographic study on how the Baringo-Silali development, the largest geothermal exploration area in Kenya, shapes and is shaped by local social, economic and cultural circumstances. An assemblage perspective will be adopted in order to understand, how monetary transactions in the context of geothermal and ancillary infrastructure dynamize and change relations between people and between people and their environments. Overall, our research will contribute to a better understanding of visions of geothermal, and more generally renewable-energy, futures and related future-making practices, and how they lead to land-use change and social-ecological transformation as well as intended and unintended socio-economic changes, and how local communities (can) benefit from or become negatively affected by these developments.
Research Regions: Kenya, Namibia
Problem Statement
What dynamics of future-making are associated with the planning and implementation of large-scale renewable energy projects in previously marginalized dryland areas? Focusing on visions, epistemic mobilities and strategic planning practices related to geothermal development and Kenya’s energy policy, this project explores the risks and opportunities, land-use changes and governance of infrastructures at the interface of global and local dynamics.
Key Questions for 3rd Phase
- What are the visions and strategies associated with money and investment (opportunities) in geothermal project areas?
- How do these visions and strategies translate into future-making especially saving, borrowing and (green) investment?
- How do different visions, future-making practices and actors compete and lead to conflict over geothermal futures in Kenya?
Methods
Interviews, document analysis, participant observation, analysis of survey results
Key Findings from Phase II
- New political-ecology approach juxtaposing “landscapes of value” and “sacrifice zones”
- Conceptualization of “ancillary infrastructures”, their temporalities, positive and negative externalities
- Better understanding of justice concerns and local acceptance in large-scale wind and solar-PV projects in Kenya
- Insights into travel and translation of geothermal knowledge based on Kenyan experts who completed geothermal training in Iceland
- Comparative case-studies on energy developments in Northern Geothermal exploration in Baringo-Silali, Kenya
- Grain dryer as geothermal direct-useapplication: pilot project in Menengai, Kenya
- Kenya’s frontier situation and struggles around the devolution of political power
- Theoretical approach “governance of future-making”, exemplified by green-hydrogen visions and developments in Namibia and South Africa
Key Findings from Phase I
Large-scale renewable energy infrastructures in Kenya are mainly driven by Kenya’s Vision 2030, an ambitious plan to transform Kenya into a newly industrializing, middle-income country (Bauriedl and Klagge, 2018, Müller-Mahn et al., 2019). While there are some large wind projects (most prominently the Lake Turkana Wind Park) and plans for a coal-powered plant, the bulk of new energy capacity comes from geothermal development (Greiner and Klagge, 2021, in print). Baringo-Silali is the largest exploration site to date and has moved from preparing ancillary infrastructures and engaging local communities to successful drilling. Geothermal future-making in Baringo-Silali is governed by linkages among various stakeholders ranging from international investors such as the KfW and national government actors, especially the Geothermal Development Cooperation (GDC), to county and community representatives (Klagge et al., 2020, Klagge and Nweke-Eze, 2020).
Geothermal development in northern Kenya takes place in a frontier situation characterized by devolution, new land laws and a weak presence of state security forces. This creates a breeding ground for (inter-ethnic) conflicts over access to land (Greiner, 2020, Greiner et al., 2021), but also conflictual community-investor relations. While the Government of Kenya, KfW, and GDC, as well as private investors have articulated long-term visions regarding sustainability, green energies and economic growth (Klagge, 2021, Nweke-Eze and Kioko, in print), members of affected communities in Baringo have much more concrete goals such as jobs and access to drinking water. Resulting investor-community as well as inter-ethnic conflicts are fuelled by “economies of anticipation”, i.e. expectations of future developments, compensations and benefits.
Cooperation within the CRC
With C03 on green imaginaries and the renewable energy-green industrialization nexus, with C01 on value-chain approaches. With A04 on social-ecological changes in Baringo, with B01 on livelihood transformation and aspirations, and with B03 on the politics and conflict dynamics of infrastructure in the Kenyan Rift Valley. With B06 and C08 exploring the role of digital payment on rural households and on rural-jobs creation. Contribution to survey (Z03) focusing on (micro-)financial transactions in Baringo, the exhibition project (Z05) and CRC228 policy-dialogue activities.
Publications
Aalders, J.T., Klagge, B. 2023. Sprung ins Ungewisse. Chancen und Risiken technologischer Entwicklung in Afrika. Geographische Rundschau, 75(10), 26–29
Bauriedl, S., Klagge, B. 2018. Stromerzeugung aus erneuerbaren Energien in Kenia. Praxis Geographie 48(3), 36-41. Link
Biber-Freudenberger, L., Bogner, C., Bareth, G., Bollig, M., Dannenberg, P., Revilla Diez, J., Greiner, C., Mtweve, P. J., Klagge, B., Kramm, T., Müller-Mahn, D., Moseti, V., Nyamari, N., Ochuodho, D. O., Kuntashula, E., Theodory, T., Thorn, J., Börner, J. 2025. Impacts of road development in sub-Saharan Africa: A call for holistic perspectives in research and policy. iScience, Volume 28, Issue 2. DOI
Greiner, C. 2020. Negotiating Access to Land and Resources at the Geothermal Frontier in Baringo, Kenya. In: Lind, J., Okenwa, D. and Scoones, I. (Eds.) Land, Investment & Politics: Reconfiguring Africa’s Pastoral Drylands. Woodbridge: James Currey, 101-109.
Greiner, C. 2022. African pastoralism: Plus ça change? From constant herders to social differentiation. In: Greiner, C. van Wolputte, S., Bollig, M. (Eds.) African Futures. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 36-46. Link
Greiner, C., Bollig, M. 2023. Fetishizing the Wild: Conservation, Commodities, and Capitalism. In: Bollig, M., et al. (eds.) Commodifying the ‘Wild’: Conservation, Markets and the Environment in Southern and Eastern Africa. Woodbridge: James Currey, 31-55.
Greiner, C., Greven, D., Klagge, B. 2021. Roads to change: Livelihoods, land disputes, and anticipation of future developments in rural Kenya. European Journal of Development Research, 33, 1044-1068. DOI
Greiner, C., Klagge, B. 2021. Elektrifizierung und Großprojekte der Stromerzeugung in Kenia. In: Becker, S., Klagge, B. and Naumann, M. (Eds.) Energiegeographie: Aktuelle Konzepte und Herausforderungen. Stuttgart: Ulmer, 289-302. Link
Greiner, C., Klagge, B. 2024. The temporalities and externalities of ancillary infrastructure in large-scale renewable energy projects: Insights from the rural periphery, Energy Policy, 193, 114303. DOI
Greiner, C., Klagge, B., Grawert, E., Mkutu, K. 2022. ‘Future-making and scalar politics in a resource frontier: Energy projects in northern Kenya‘, PLAAS Working Papers, No. 63. Full Text
Greiner, C., Klagge, B., Mkutu, K., Ndi, F. 2026. The Making of an Energy Resource Periphery?: Scalar Politics, Frontier Dynamics, and Future-Making in Northern Kenya. In Müller-Mahn, D. & Bollig, M. (Eds.), African Futures in the Making (pp. 150–174). Boydell & Brewer. DOI
Greiner, C., Klagge, B., Mkutu, K., Ndi, F. forthcoming. The making of a resource periphery? Scalar politics, frontier dynamics, and future-making in Northern Kenya. Accepted for publication in Müller-Mahn, D., Bollig, M. (eds.): Social-ecological Futures in Southern and Eastern Africa. Woodbridge: James Currey.
Greiner, C., Klagge, G., Owino, E.A. 2023. The political ecology of geothermal development: Green sacrifice zones or energy landscapes of value?, Energy Research & Social Science, 99, p. 103063. DOI
Greiner, C., Van Wolputte, S., Bollig, M. (eds.) 2022. African Futures. Leiden: Brill. DOI
Greiner, C., Vehrs, H. P., Bollig, M. 2021. Land-use and land-cover changes in pastoral drylands: Long-term dynamics, economic change, and shifting socioecological frontiers in Baringo, Kenya. Human Ecology, 49(5), 565–57. DOI
Greven, D. 2023. Bursting pipes and broken dreams: on ruination and reappropriation of large-scale water infrastructure in Baringo County, Kenya. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 17(1–2), 241–261. DOI
Kalvelage, L., Walker, B. 2024. Strategic coupling beyond borders: Germany’s extraterritorial agency in Namibia’s green hydrogen industry. Journal of Economic Geography, 24(6), 921–941. DOI
Klagge, B. 2021. The Renewable Energy Revolution: Risk, Investor and Financing Structures – with Case Studies from Germany and Kenya. In: Knox-Hayes. J. and Wójcik, D. (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of Financial Geography. New York: Routledge, 620-645. Link
Klagge, B. 2022. Geothermie-Großprojekte im ländlich-peripheren Kenia: Chancen und Herausforderungen zwischen Stromerzeugung für den nationalen Markt und regionaler Entwicklung durch direct use. Standort, 46(4), 271–278. DOI
Klagge, B., Greiner, C., Greven, D., Nweke-Eze, C. 2020. Cross-scale Linkages of Centralized Electricity Generation: Geothermal Development and Investor-community Relations in Kenya’s Semi-arid North. Politics and Governance, 8(3), 211-222. DOI
Klagge, B., Nweke-Eze, C. 2020. Financing large-scale renewable-energy projects in Kenya: investor types, international connections, and financialization. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 102(1), 61-83. DOI
Klagge, B., Walker, B. 2024. Grüne Wasserstoffwirtschaft in Deutschland und die Wasserstoffpartnerschaft mit Namibia. Geographische Rundschau 76(4), 38–43
Klagge, B., Walker, B., Kalvelage, L., Greiner, C. 2025. Governance of future-making: Green hydrogen in Namibia and South Africa. Geoforum, 161, 104244. DOI
Klagge, B., Zademach, H.-M. 2018. International Capital Flows, Stock Markets, and Uneven Development: The case of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative (SSEI). Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie / The German Journal for Economic Geography 62(2), 92-107. DOI
Kuiper, G., Greiner, C. 2025. Secondary towns and rural transformations: a translocal perspective. In Handbook on Rural-Urban Linkages in the Global South (pp. 114-128). Edward Elgar Publishing. DOI
Kuiper, G., Greiner, C. 2021. Export horticulture and labour migration in Kenya: Translocality and transiency in a secondary town. Geoforum. 122, 1.10. DOI
Lawhon, M., Follmann, A., Braun, B., Cornea, N., Greiner, C., Guma, P., Karpouzoglou, T., Revilla Diez, J., Schindler, S., Schramm, S., Sielker, F., Tups, G., Vij, S., Dannenberg, P. 2023. Making Heterogeneous Infrastructure Futures in and Beyond the Global South, Futures, 154, 103270. DOI
Mkutu, K. 2023. The frontier on the doorstep: development and conflict dynamics in the southern rangelands of Kenya. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 17(1–2), 22–39. DOI
Müller-Mahn, D., Dannenberg, P., Klagge, B. 2019. Das ländliche Afrika im Umbruch: Entwicklungskorridore und die Transformation des Agrarsektors. Geographische Rundschau 71(11), 10-16. Link
Ndi, F.A. 2024. Justice concerns in large-scale renewable energy projects: a case study echoing the importance of procedural justice in wind energy development in Kenya. Energy, Sustainability and Society, 14(47). DOI
Ndi, F.A. 2024. Land acquisition, renewable energy development, and livelihood transformation in rural Kenya: The case of the Kipeto wind energy project. Energy Research & Social Science, 112, 103530. DOI
Nweke-Eze, C. 2021. Neoliberal Reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa’s Electricity Sector: Implementation, Experiences, and Impacts. In: Osabuohien, E.S., Oduntan, E.A., Gershon, O., Onanuga, O. and Ola-David, O. (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Institution Development for Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Growth in Africa. Hershey: IGI Global, 410-430. DOI
Nweke-Eze, C., Kioko, E.M. 2021. ‘But we cannot do it all’: Investors’ sustainability tensions and strategic selectivity in the development of Geothermal Energy in Kenya. In: Leal Filho, W., Pretorius, R. and de Sousa, L. (Eds.) Sustainable Development in Africa, World Sustainability Series. Cham: Springer. Link
Owuor, S., Wamukota, C., Klagge, B., Greiner, C., Nyandega, I. 2025. Unintended Socio-Economic Transformations Associated with Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects: The Case of Menengai Geothermal Development in Kenya. Review of Regional Research. DOI
Van Wolputte, S., Greiner, C., Bollig, M. 2022. Futuring Africa: An Introduction. In: Greiner, C. van Wolputte, S., Bollig, M. (eds.) African Futures. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1-16. DOI
Volkert, M., Klagge, B. 2022. Electrification and Devolution in Kenya: Opportunities and challenges. Energy for Sustainable Development 71, 541-553. DOI
Wummel, J. C. 2024. Training as a Rite of Passage: Kenyan Geothermal Professionals Gaining Seniority in Iceland. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 33(4), 431–447. DOI
Project News
Harnessing of Steam: Geothermal Energy, Ancillary Infrastructure and Scalar Challenges in Kenya – Webinar with Clemens Greiner
African Futures in the Making: New Open-Access Publication in the Future Rural Africa Book Series
Frankline Ndi Receives International Paper Award of the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn
Planning the Future: Comparing Green Hydrogen Strategies in Chile, Namibia, and South Africa
Award for Outstanding Early Career Research for Linus Kalvelage and Benedikt Walker
Energy Expansion in Kenya: Prospects, Challenges and Implications for the Global Energy Transition – Talk by Frankline Ndi
New Publication: The Unintended Socio-Economic Transformations of Kenya’s Green Energy Boom
Researchers From Two Future Rural Africa Sub-Projects Collaborate in New Publication on the Governance of Future-Making in Namibia’s and South Africa’s Green Hydrogen Sectors
Several Future Rural Africa Sub-Projects Collaborate in Newly Published Article on Road Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Green Hydrogen and Namibia’s Future: Insights from Future Rural Africa Scientists Linus Kalvelage and Benedikt Walker
CRC-TRR Future Rural Africa at Northeast Africa Forum, University of Oxford
Joachim Knab, Alice Mitchell, Sabrina Msangi and Thomas Widlok Edit NJAS Special Issue on Framing Difference in Age and Generation in Africa
Vacancy: Postdoctoral Researcher in VolkswagenStiftung Project „Medium-Scale Farmers in Rural Africa: Transformations in Belonging, Property, Kinship and Power“
Proposal for New Project on Medium-Scale Farmers in Rural Africa Approved by Volkswagen Foundation
CRC-TRR 228 Future Rural Africa Dissemination Workshop in Kabarnet, Baringo County
New Publication: The Temporalities and Externalities of Ancillary Infrastructure in Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects: Insights from the Rural Periphery
New Publication: Justice Concerns in Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects – a Case Study Echoing the Importance of Procedural Justice in Wind Energy Development in Kenya
Future Rural Africa Researchers Eric Kioko and Clemens Greiner named Principal Investigators in Newly Established Research Consortium “Commodifying the Wild”
New Publication: Land acquisition, renewable energy development, and livelihood transformation in rural Kenya – The case of the Kipeto wind energy project
