Tokyo's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said today it received a full-turnkey order from Kenya Electricity Generating Co. to build a 35 megawatt geothermal power plant.

The plant will be the third unit at KenGen's Olkaria II geothermal power station, about 100 kilometers northwest of Nairobi.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, part of the Mitsubishi group (Pink Sheets: MSBHY), said the new construction is expected to become a Clean Development Mechanism project under the Kyoto Protocol.

The new plant is slated to go on-stream by the end of 2009.

The facility on order will consist of a steam turbine, condenser, generator, peripheral equipment, electrical facilities and a control system.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said its Nagasaki Shipyard and Machinery Works will be responsible for the design, manufacture, installation and civil engineering work, while Mitsubishi Electric will supply the generator.

The company has already supplied five geothermal power plants to KenGen, three 15 MW units for Olkaria I that went on-stream in 1980s, and two 35 MW units for Olkaria II completed in 2003.

Outside Japan, the company has delivered geothermal plants to 13 countries worldwide, including Kenya, the United States, Iceland and Costa Rica, with a collective power output of 3,000 MW.

Mitsubishi said Kenya currently gets more than 75 percent of its entire power supply from hydropower, but that the country has plans to promote more geothermal projects.