Steaming ahead while also losing pressure? Examining the roles of the state in Kenya's geothermal energy transition

TY - JOUR

T1 - Steaming ahead while also losing pressure?

T2 - Examining the roles of the state in Kenya's geothermal energy transition

AU - Tyce, Matthew

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025

PY - 2025/12/31

Y1 - 2025/12/31

N2 - This paper aligns with, and seeks to build on, literature which has called for more sophisticated, dynamic conceptions of ‘the state’ in sustainability transitions research. Specifically, the paper echoes scholars who have argued that relational state theory can offer a useful approach for understanding the complex, often contradictory roles that states play in shaping sustainability transitions. The paper demonstrates its utility through the case of Kenya's geothermal energy transition. Since the early-2000s, geothermal has displaced hydro and thermal power as Kenya's biggest source of electricity and, today, Kenya ranks seventh amongst geothermal power producers worldwide. Mainstream accounts often appear to locate Kenya's geothermal ‘success’ in the adoption of institutional arrangements that have promoted private investment and restricted the state's presence. Where the state is recognised, it is often seemingly for dutifully performing the functions of a ‘de-risking state’. Critical academic literature identifies a more expansive role for the state. However, it, too, underplays various ways in which the Kenyan state – and balance of social forces underpinning it – has shaped geothermal developments. A relational approach, by contrast, uncovers a fuller, more extensive role for state actors in Kenya's geothermal transition. It also yields a more complicated, nuanced account in which state actors have not always supported geothermal expansion and, in some respects, have actively forestalled it, through combinations of intra-state turf wars, flawed planning processes and personalistic rent-seeking.

AB - This paper aligns with, and seeks to build on, literature which has called for more sophisticated, dynamic conceptions of ‘the state’ in sustainability transitions research. Specifically, the paper echoes scholars who have argued that relational state theory can offer a useful approach for understanding the complex, often contradictory roles that states play in shaping sustainability transitions. The paper demonstrates its utility through the case of Kenya's geothermal energy transition. Since the early-2000s, geothermal has displaced hydro and thermal power as Kenya's biggest source of electricity and, today, Kenya ranks seventh amongst geothermal power producers worldwide. Mainstream accounts often appear to locate Kenya's geothermal ‘success’ in the adoption of institutional arrangements that have promoted private investment and restricted the state's presence. Where the state is recognised, it is often seemingly for dutifully performing the functions of a ‘de-risking state’. Critical academic literature identifies a more expansive role for the state. However, it, too, underplays various ways in which the Kenyan state – and balance of social forces underpinning it – has shaped geothermal developments. A relational approach, by contrast, uncovers a fuller, more extensive role for state actors in Kenya's geothermal transition. It also yields a more complicated, nuanced account in which state actors have not always supported geothermal expansion and, in some respects, have actively forestalled it, through combinations of intra-state turf wars, flawed planning processes and personalistic rent-seeking.

KW - geothermal energy

KW - Kenya

KW - relational state theory

KW - sustainability transitions

KW - International political economy

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105008115145

U2 - 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101008

DO - 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101008

M3 - Article

SN - 2210-4224

VL - 57

JO - Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

JF - Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

M1 - 101008

ER -