Wind power in Kenya: KenGen develops 400 MW wind farm

The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) announced that it will develop a 400MW wind power plant in the Meru County, eastern Kenya.

The wind farm will be financed by a consortium of development financiers namely the French Development Agency and the German Development Bank.

 

According to KenGen the first phase of the wind power project is expected to be completed by December 2017, The News Nigeria reported.

Managing director and CEO of KenGen Albert Mugo said: “We have developed internal capacity to implement the wind project, we see a lot of potential in wind power.

“It is likely to become a big thing in Kenya and we are part of a group of businesses taking leadership in wind power development in the country.”

“The lenders are on site this week to conduct a due diligence on the project. The first phase of the project for a 50MW-100MW project will be financed by concessional funding which is low cost.”

In 1993, the Belgium Government donated two wind turbines to KenGen’s Ngong power station located near the country’s capital Nairobi.

According to KenGen, the two turbines have since been retired with the second phase of the project commissioned in August 2009 was installed with six Vestas V52-850kW wind turbines generating 5.1MW of clean power. It has since increased generation capacity to 25.5MW of power.

According to a feasibility study report developed two years ago, there is enough wind resources to develop up to 400MW in phases, The News Nigeria reported.

KenGen said: “The additional data will confirm the scale up to 400MW as the company seeks to increase the production of renewable energy.”

In May, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was accompanied by various MPs from across the region for the official launch of the last phase of The Last Mile Connectivity Project in the eastern town of Tala, Kenya.

The East African electricity project, which stretches from Kenya’s second largest city Mombasa to the country’s capital Nairobi, was initiated by the government to deliver affordable power to marginalised areas by connecting otherwise unconnected households to the national electricity grid.