Kenya: Windy Prospects – Energy Company Sets Up Shop in Kenya

Lake Turkana Wind Power plans to produce 300MW by 2012 by harnessing renewable wind power in northern Kenya. The project, once complete could meet about a quarter of at Kenya’s total energy demand, now standing at an estimated 1,200M. Chris Staubo, a director at LTWP talks to us about the project and renewable energy in Africa.
How long did it take to study the viability of wind power projects in Marsabit? Why Marsabit?

The promoters of Lake Turkana Wind Power project (LTWP) were aware since the 1980’s that there were was a huge potential in Loyingalani but it was not financially viable until now, with greatly improved turbines as well as rising cost of crude oil and other power sources. We have studied the area in seven different places at three heights of 40m, 60m and 80metres since early November 2006 as well as using meteorology station data for over 10 years to correlate the data with ours.

Briefly describe the LTWP project.

Production is expected to start in around July 2011 with full production 12 months later. There will be a total of 367 turbines of 850kv each being the Vestas V52 machine. The reason for this is that the V52 has a better history for reliability than other machines. The farm will produce up to 300MW. The transmission line will be a 400kv dual circuit line of 426km and will be linked from site to Suswa outside Nairobi.

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