As the country looks to diversify its energy sources, substantial reservoirs of geothermal energy have been discovered near Kalisimbi, an official told The New Times.

Yussuf Uwamahoro, the Coordinator of the Energy Sector in the Ministry of Infrastructure confirmed the discovery yesterday, also noting that drilling might start next year.

"Promising reservoir of geothermal potential has been identified near Kalisimbi – the size of the reservoir is being defined by experts from the Kenya Generation Company – drilling to start in 2010,” Uwamahoro said.

Uwamahoro explained that three types of studies – geological, physical and chemical have to be first conducted before actual locations and quantities are marked out in an area.

Geothermal energy is the heat from the Earth. Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth’s surface.

Geothermal energy has been used for thousands of years in some countries for cooking and heating.
Geothermal energy is an important resource in volcanically active places.

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