Giston Energy gets nod to set up wind farm in northern Kenya

A new company has received government approval to set up a wind farm, a project seen as a major boost to Kenya’s search for less costly and renewable energy to meet the growing demand of electricity from domestic and industrial use.

Giston Energy is already testing the strength of wind around the area it plans to set up the farm.

Lake Turkana Wind Power Ltd is the other company planning a 300 megawatts (MW) generation by end of 2012.

“We have successfully obtained a formal approval to develop 300MW wind farm from Government of Kenya through Ministry of Energy,” said Cyrus Thairu, Giston Energy’s communications director.

Giston Energy is owned by a group of local and mostly United States-based Kenyans.

It plans to invest in wind and solar power in Northern Kenya. It solar output will be 50MW.

The company officials said they will now start negotiations with Kenya Power and Lighting (KPLC) on Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) that will set the price at which it will sell electricity to the power distributor.

“We have submitted our PPA proposal to KPLC leadership and we’re waiting for their response.”

The company said it has also secured a commitment for transmission funding up to $200 million, but did not mention the source of that funding.

Lack of transmission lines in areas targeted by solar and wind electricity investors has been a major cost concern.

Last month, Lake Turkana Wind Power secured a Sh11.4 billion funding from Spanish government to finance construction of the transmission line.

Lake Turkana Wind Power has also received undisclosed amount of carbon emission reduction funding from African Carbon Asset Development facility that has been set up as collaboration between Unep, Standard Bank and the German government’s International Climate Initiative.

The company envisages constructing a wind farm consisting of 353 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 850 kilowatts (kw).

The total power generated in the initial phase of the project expected to reach 300Mw by July 2012.

Lake Turkana Wind Power already has an agreement with Danish firm—Vestas Wind to supply 360 wind turbines for use in the project estimated at about Sh55 billion.