Sh17bn committed to the country’s second largest wind power farm

Last Updated 13 years ago by Kenya Engineer

The US has committed Sh17 billion to finance a 100 megawatt wind farm located in Kajiado County. The Kipeto Wind farm as is named is another one of Kenya’s mega wind projects after Lake Turkana Wind Power, Ngong Hills among others.

A US public agency responsible for mobilizing capital for private firms, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has pledged to inject the Sh17 billion into the project. This will be part of the Ksh 43 billion that the US intends to invest in the country’s renewable energy resources in the next five years.

Kipeto Energy Limited will install 47 GE 1.6-100 and 16 GE 1.6-82.5 wind turbines each with a rated capacity of 1.62 MW which leads to an installed capacity of 102.06 MW. It is estimated that the project activity will supply 410,476 MWh of clean electricity to the Kenyan national electricity grid per year.

Construction works will also include the construction of a new on-site substation and a 66 kV transmission line, which will transmit generated electricity to the Kenyan national electricity grid.

The project comes at a time when the country is seeking to lower the cost of energy in the country as well as exploit cheaper resources of energy to end over reliance on hydro power as well as cut on the use of the expensive diesel energy.

The 2011-2031 Updated Least Cost Power Development Plan forecasts that, in 2031, Kenya’s peak
demand will range between 12,738 and 22,985MW. In order to meet this demand, the candidate generation sources considered in the system expansion plan include geothermal, hydro, wind, coal, oil fired plants and nuclear power plants.

It is expected that over the 30-year period, 26% of the total installed capacity will be obtained from geothermal, 19% from nuclear plants, 13% from coal plants and 9% from imports. Wind and hydro plants will provide 9% and 5% respectively while medium speed diesel and gas turbines will provide 9% and 11% of the total capacity respectively.

The project activity will achieve CO2  emission reductions by replacing electricity generated by fossil fuel
powered plants connected to the national electricity grid. “The project is expected to achieve annual emission reductions of about 253,469 t CO2 / year. “,says a report on the project.

Ownership
The wind farm is managed by Kipeto Energy Limited (KEL),initially founded by Kenya based Craftskills Wind Energy International Limited.KEL is majority owned by General Electric with the World Bank Group’s investment arm,IFC and a community trust owning the other shares.

The Kipeto wind will become the country’s second largest wind power farm after LTWP which will have an installed capacity of 300MW.