Kenya Electricity Generating Co., the East African nation’s main power producer, plans a 1,000 megawatt wind farm that would be the continent’s biggest such facility.
About 92% of Kenya’s generating capacity already comes from renewables such as hydroelectric dams and geothermal. Authorities there aim to increase that to 100% by 2030 and the nation’s leader, William Ruto, is positioning himself to be Africa’s leading voice on combating global warming.
KenGen, the partially state-owned company, seeks debt finance to cover 75% of project costs, with the remainder to be funded through equity, it said in an emailed response to questions.
It didn’t disclose projected costs and expects estimates will be available once it has “all the approvals and confirms the capacity for each phase.”
The facility will be situated in the northwestern county of Marsabit, near the 310 megawatt Lake Turkana Wind Power Ltd. park that’s currently the continent’s biggest wind plant. KenGen expects to connect to the national grid in 2028.
Agence Française de Développement is “taking a close interest” in the wind farm, it said in a separate emailed response to questions. The French lender got feasibility studies done by consultancy firm, Sofreco, it said.
“The studies have also recommended the implementation of the project in phases, as the demand capacity increases and as the grid security warrants,” according to KenGen, which has about four other wind farms in the pipeline.
A proposed 10-gigawatt project in Egypt valued at $10 billion could dwarf Kenya’s when complete.
