Construction of the €625 million Lake Turkana wind power project in Kenya has started. It is Africa’s largest wind power project to date.
Mott MacDonald, the lender’s technical advisor on the project, says that the project will provide approximately 15 per cent of total power generation in Kenya when it starts operating in early 2017.
The Lake Turkana wind project will have a capacity of 310 MW and represents the single largest private investment in Kenya’s history. It will feature 365 Vestas wind turbines, each with a capacity of 850 kW, the associated overhead electric grid collection system and a high voltage substation.
The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (Ketraco), with concessional funding from the Spanish government, is constructing a double circuit 400 kV, 428 km transmission line to deliver the electricity from the Lake Turkana project to the national grid. This new transmission line will also enable the electrification of nearby rural areas, says Mott MacDonald.
