The 300 MW Lake Turkana Wind Power Project, which is being developed in the country’s North-East, hopes to produce 20% of the country’s current installed electricity generating capacity when it comes online in 2016.
The $694 million project achieved full financial close in December 2014, making it the largest private investment in Kenyan history.
“The success of this project, even though it has taken a long time to become successful, will inspire confidence in investors,” says William Macpherson, sub-Saharan African energy analyst at African Energy Consultancy. “It’s a renewable plant — which is harder to get right than other power plants — and that it looks like it will be online relatively soon shows the government has got its priorities right.”
The project is one part of the country’s ambitious project to add 5,000 MW of power onto the grid in the next three years.
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Construction is set to begin early 2015, but if the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project does what it’s supposed to then Kenyans could be in for fewer blackouts and a more connected future.
“We can expect the Lake Turkana Wind Power project to bring change gradually,” says Kenya Power’s Muriithi. “As demand for electricity grows, we will see electricity generated from wind turbines play a more important role in Kenya’s and reduce power costs in the country.”
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Thomas Page contributed to this report.
