Lake Turkana to begin construction of Kenyan wind farm in June

Dutch-led consortium Lake Turkana Wind Power plans to begin construction at its 300MW wind farm project in northern Kenya, in June this year.

The $775m project is expected to start once the developer secures risk guarantees from the Ida and Miga financial institutions, part of the World Bank Group.

The project to be erected near Lake Turkana, took seven years of study and funding negotiations, will employ a total of 365 wind turbines to be supplied by Denmark’s Vestas.

The consortium signed a $756 million contract with Vestas to supply V52 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 850 kW.

Currently, the company is planning to build infrastructure projectss at the site, which include a 204km road and 428km transmission line.

The transmission line will be built at an additional cost of €142m and will link the wind farm to the national grid.

Spain based Isolux Corsan will build the line which will be financed by loans from the Spanish and Kenyan governments.

The wind farm will start production of the first 50MW in mid-2014 and will reach full capacity in early 2015.

The consortium delivering the project has entered into a contract to sell the power produced to utility company Kenya Power over 20 years, reports AFP.