The country is likely to see a gradual decline in the cost of electricity as a planned wind turbine project commences. The wind farm will contribute to the national grid and reduce reliance on hydro-electric power.
According to the AFP, the construction of Africa’s largest wind farm is set to begin in June. The site of this farm is an arid region in northern Kenya, near Lake Turkana where wind speeds are consistently about 11 meters per second. A total of 365 wind turbines are set to be erected.
The site is in a very remote area with no infrastructure, the first step therefore will be to improve on or build 204 kilometres of road in northern Kenya for the trucks that will make 12,000 trips to bring in all the materials for the project in the remote, neglected region.
Contribution to the National Grid
The wind farm is expected to start production of the first 50 MW in mid-2014 and reach full capacity in early 2015, by which time it should have an installed capacity of 300 megawatts.
Total energy generation in Kenya was 6,460 MW hours in 2008, half from hydroelectric power, one-third from oil and 16 percent from geothermal power, according to the Global Energy Network Institute.
The consortium for the Kenyan project has entered into a contract to sell the power produced to utility company Kenya Power over 20 years at a cost of approximately 8.24 sh/kwh (7.52 euro cents/kwh) a price, which, together with geothermal, is the lowest in Kenya.
In addition to increasing the total national energy generation, the unit cost of energy is expected to go down due to reduced reliance on generators to boost power production when water levels fall. This will reduce the amount of money Kenyan households spend on electricity and stimulate foreign investment in Kenya due to reduced energy costs.
Read more in the Daily Nation.