Lake Turkana power farm to produce 90 megawatts next year

Kenya will get the first 90 megawatts from Lake Turkana Wind Power project in 2016 when the first production will be loaded onto the national grid. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP   NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• The project will be spread over 40,000 acres and the company has begun paving over 130km of roads to access the turbines locations.
• The project suffered a major blow in 2012 when the World Bank decided to withdraw support over fears that the output of electricity would overshoot demand.
• Lake Turkana Wind Power is the biggest wind farm in sub Saharan Africa and will run into full capacity in April 2017 transmitting a total of 310 megawatts to the national grid.

By OTIATO GUGUYU
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Kenya will get the first 90 megawatts from Lake Turkana Wind Power project in 2016 when the first production will be loaded onto the national grid.

The biggest wind farm in sub Saharan Africa will run into full capacity in April 2017 transmitting a total of 310 megawatts to the national grid through a 428km overhead line that is being constructed by the Kenya Electrical Transmission Company.

The Sh70 billion project located in Loyangalani District, Marsabit West County will be the largest single private investment in Kenya’s history. 

Project Director Carlo Van Wageningen said that although wind power is considered expensive, the project has the ability to give a strong yield that would allow the company to sell electricity cheaply to Kenya Power.

POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENT

Under the Power Purchase Agreement, Kenya Power will pay a tariff of Sh9 per kilowatt hour for a 20 year period.

Mr Van Wageningen said the site could yield 62 per cent from every megawatt involved against an industry average of 27 per cent in Europe.

“That is the single reason why we can be competitive on the price we offer on wind, normally you hear that wind power is expensive but the fact that this country has a such a good wind resource makes this project viable,” Mr Van Wageningen said during the consultative meeting by the International Project Finance Association (IPFA) at the KPMG offices on Tuesday.

He said that besides the load factor, wind at the project was predictable month-on-month with an average speed of 11.8 meters per second against 7 meters per second at a standard wind powers stations in Europe.

ACCESS ROADS

The project will be spread over 40,000 acres and the company has begun paving over 130km of interior roads to access turbines locations.

Turkana Wind Power will also have to build a road from Mombasa to transport the 365 Danish-made wind turbines and equipment which will start arriving at the port in January.

The project started nine and a half years ago has been delayed by financial problems for almost three years.

After years of drawing up engineering plans and political support, the project suffered a major blow in 2012 when the World Bank decided to withdraw support over fears that the output of electricity would overshoot demand and concerns about the environmental impact assessment.

The African Development Bank stepped in to lead the funding with 10 other multilateral lenders to run the project.