Africa's largest wind farm to be in Kenya

28 July 2009

Kenya is to be the home of Africa's largest wind farm thanks to a project backed by the African Development Bank.

The £533 million scheme will see around 365 turbines installed in a desert around Lake Turkana in the northern part of the country.

When it is completed - which should be in 2012 - it will have the capacity to generate 300 Mw.

As well as being a quarter of Kenya's current installed power, it will be one of the highest proportions of wind energy to be fed in a national grid anywhere in the world.

Plans are now being put forward by private investors to build a second farm near the tourist town Naivashi.

Nick Nuttal from the United Nations Environment Programme asserted Kenya's natural fuel should come from the wind, hot underground rock and the sun.

"After the initial capital costs this energy is free," he stated.

People behind the Lake Turkana Wind Power project have said the site is one of the best in the world for wind.

Category: Energy