Kenya to become home of Africa’s Biggest Wind farm

Last Updated 14 years ago by Kenya Engineer

A multi-million wind power project is set to start construction in June this year after seven years of study and funding talks. The $775 million wind farm project to be erected near Lake Turkana will become one of Africa’s biggest wind farm consisting of 365 wind turbines.

The wind farm expected to start production of the first 50MW in mid-2014 will be financed by the government and a loan from the Spanish government .It is expected to reach full capacity of about 310MW by the year 2015 where it will meet 20% of the country’s energy demand.

The first step will however be to improve on or build a 204km road to be used for transporting materials for the project. It is estimated that the trucks to be used will require 12,000 trips to transport of the equipment and materials. A 48km transmission line will be built to link the wind farm to the national grid.Isolux Corsan, of Spain will build the transmission line at an extra cost of $188.3 million.

The electricity produced by the wind turbines will be sold to Kenya Power for approximately $9.90 making it the most affordable energy in Kenya.Kenyans pay more for electricity than residents of any other African country except Rwanda in spite the common power cuts and power losses. The project will work in tandem with Kenya’s geothermal energy projects and help the country break away from foreign sources of fuel and fossil-fuels.

A wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas will supply the 365 Vestas V52 turbines each with a capacity of 850 watts. The winds in this region blow predictably and regularly averaging speeds of 11 metres per second.

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