By Rita Murphy
Kenya has stepped up its efforts to transform 40,000 acres of land into a huge wind farm, in a bid to meet growing demand for electricity.
The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project, which is being developed in the country’s North-East, aims to produce 20% of the country’s current installed electricity generating capacity when it comes online in 2016.
The $694 million project achieved full financial backing in December 2014, making it the largest private investment in Kenyan history.
“The success of this project will inspire confidence in investors,” says William Macpherson, sub-Saharan African energy analyst at African Energy Consultancy. “It’s a renewable plant — which is harder to get right than other power plants. It looks like it will be online relatively soon, and this shows the government has got its priorities right.”
This project won a prestigious award in Britain this month (Feb, 2015).