Last Updated 15 years ago by Kenya Engineer
A government promise has brought Africa’s largest planned wind farm a step nearer to realization. The Dutch consortium backing the Lake Tarkana Wind Power (LTWP) project overcame a major hurdle when the Kenyan government agreed in mid-February to back the construction of the wind project. Planning for the project which aims to install some 300 MW of name plate wind capacity in the Lake Turkana area came to a grinding halt in late 2010 when its financial backers demanded financial guarantees from the Kenyan ministry of finance.
Kenya law specifically prohibits the government from providing such financial backing. The lenders have now agreed to accept the consolation prize of political backing The LTWP chairman Carlo van Wageningen told Reuters: ‘Guarantees we are not being given, what we are getting is a letter of comfort, or support, from the ministry of finance. This has now been agreed by the lenders as an acceptable format so we can move forward.” “ Even with the new assurance van Wageningen said that the financial package would need another 6 to 8 months to complete.
The first stage of the project, slated to begin this fall, will see the installation of 50 MW of turbines and is expected to take some 19 months to complete.
LTWP has a longstanding 20-year power purchase agreement with Kenya’s power authority under which the government controlled company will pay some $0.10 per kilowatt hour. Shoring up the financing for the project will be a major victory for van Wageningen. but many hurdles still lie ahead in transporting and installing the turbines in this difficult remote region of the country.
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