Kenyan Kinangop Wind Park plans 61 MW wind farm

Recent back-to-back incidences of low rainfall have slashed the country’s hydropower production, leaving consumers with high electricity bills after producers turned to more expensive thermal power.

"The project consists of building a 60.8MW wind power park in Kinangop in order to supply additional power to the national grid," it said in a statement.

The firm said it will apply for a power generation licence from the sector regulator on Dec. 5.

Investors in the east Africa’s largest economy are turning more to renewable sources such as wind and geothermal energy to help stabilise supplies of electricity.

Kenya has several wind power projects lined up for implementation including one for 300MW planned for the north of the country.

Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) — a subsidiary of Dutch wind power firm KP&P — behind the 617 million euro ($873.7 million) project, said in March construction would start by December.

Kenya’s main power producer Kenya Electricity Generating Company is already generating over 5 MW from wind in the outskirts of the capital.

Another firm, Aeolus Kenya, is in the process of implementing a 60MW wind power project to be located in Kinangop Plateau in central Kenya. Kenya has set a target of 30,000 megawatt (MW) generation by 2030, the year in which it hopes to become a middle-income country.

At present it has a capacity of 1,400 MW and is slated to install another 2,000-3,000MW within the next five years.