Kenya Launches Africa’s Largest Wind Power Station
President Uhuru Kenyatta has commissioned Africa’s largest wind farm, Lake Turkana Wind Power, which will generate 310 Megawatts of power.
The project, which is located in Marsabit County has 365 wind turbines each with a capacity of 850kW, it sits on 70,000 hectares of land.
A year ago, the plant started feeding electricity to the national grid, it transmits power through the same line that evacuates power from the plant to the grid in Suswa, Narok County.
“Globally, Kenya is celebrated as one of the leading countries in the world with an energy mix dominated with renewable sources especially from geothermal, a technology in which our country has become a continental centre of excellence,” a statement released by Statehouse stated.
Kenya’s generation of wind power is accelerating at a fast pace, by November 2018, Wind energy had surpassed thermal generation, electricity from wind farms increased to 139.17 million kWh compared to 7.13M KWh during the same period the previous year.
The Lake Turkana Wind Power will be an addition to Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KENGEN’s) Ngong Hills Wind Farm which produces around 24 MW of electricity from its farm.
In February, KenGen announced its plans to construct additional turbines at its Ngong wind farm that will increase power output by 10 megawatts, the company stated; “The project will involve the design, manufacture, transportation, installation, testing and commissioning of the wind farm project by KenGen.”
Generally, the country has an installed capacity of 2,712 Megawatts with consumption of a maximum of 1,860 Megawatts leaving a surplus of about 900 Megawatts.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Kenya’s wind energy capacity is estimated to reach 3,000 Megawatts (MW), more than double the current national demand.
Featured Image Courtesy: Lake Turkana Wind Power
