Spain gives giant Turkana Wind Power Project $150m funding

Kenya is ranked fifth in the world and first in Africa in terms of wind power generation.

The country has compiled a wind energy atlas that gives indicative information about the wind potential in various parts of the country.

And, to attract investment capital in wind resources power generation, the government has  published a “feed-in tariff” guaranteeing investors the minimum tariff they can charge the off-taker, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC).    

The feed-in tariff applies for 15 years from the date of the commissioning of the wind power plant.

When completed, the Lake Turkana wind farm will be the largest producer of national-grid fed wind energy any where in the world. 

Until now, only Morocco and Egypt had implemented wind energy projects on any significant scale.

The  Lake Turkana Wind Power Project  is so massive that implementation will almost be a logistical nightmare — involving  construction of 365 giant wind turbines at a cost of $800 billion and transporting to  Marsabit — almost 1,500 kilometres from the port of Mombasa.

The wind farm, to be constructed on a 66,000 hectares of land, is to be funded by equity and long term loans, mainly by long term foreign financiers led by KP&P of the Netherlands and supplier credits from Dutch manufacturers of wind power generation equipment.

The  transmission line will be funded by the state on lent to the state-owned Kenya Electricity Transmission Company.

Aldwych International, with operations in more than 15 countries, recently became the main shareholder,  having taken a 51 per cent stake.

The British firm has wide interests in Kenya’s energy  sector, with a sizeable  stake in the Rabai thermal power plant that supplies 90 megawatts to the national grid.

Aldwych’s entry into the wind power project came after collapse of  negotiations between the original shareholders  and  Globeleq, the United Kingdom private equity firm.

The wind farm company has recently signed a power purchase deal with the off taker — the Kenya Power and Lighting Company — committing it to supply the national grid at a price of Ksh7.80 (7.22 euro cents per kwh)  — making the wind farm the cheapest source of power in Kenya, and below the feed-in tariff of Ksh9.

Current generation mix is made of 719MW hydro, 163 MW geothermal, and 407 MW thermal power — including 290 MW from emergency power producers.

That output stands against real demand level of 1,135 MW and peak demand of 1107 such units, leaving the reserve at just four per cent.