Civil and engineering company Civicon has been awarded a USD 36 million (Ksh 3.2 billion) contract to rehabilitate 204 kilometers access roads for the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project (LTWP) and the construction of an additional 109 kilometers on site road network to access the largest wind power project in Africa.
The upgrading of the road network to gravel standard is aimed at opening up the area especially for the delivery of the 365 Vestas Wind Turbines and the Siemens Transformers when the construction of wind power project officially begins. Civicons contract is expected to last for 15 months.
The road upgrade project has been approved by: KeNHa (Kenya National Highway Authority), KeRRa (Kenya Rural Roads Authority), County Council of Marsabit. All Environmental and Social Impact Assessment have been approved by NEMA and done to Equator Principles.
Nathan Gachugi, Project Manager at Viability Africa, a renewable energy firm in Nairobi, Kenya, said “the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project is a testament to the immense potential for Renewable Energy investments in Kenya under the framework of the current feed in tariff.”
On completion, the project is expected to boost Kenya’s Power supply the 300MW wind power grid in the Turkana plains. The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project (LTWP) is a Ksh75 billion (€582 million) wind power project which is projected to deliver approximately 20% of the current installed electricity generating capacity to the national grid in reliable, low cost wind power.