Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) targets connecting a new 42.5-megawatt solar power plant to the national grid by 2027 in the race to grow the share of renewable energy used.
KenGen plans to build a floating solar power plant at its Seven Forks dams to increase the generation of renewable electricity.
The plant will become the country’s second-largest solar plant, behind the 54.65-megawatt Garissa Solar power plant, which the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation developed.
Other major solar plants in the country include Selenkei, Alten, Malindi, and Cedate, all of which have an installed capacity of 40 megawatts.
The solar plant will push KenGen’s total installed power capacity, which stood at 1,904 megawatts in June 2023, to more than 1946.5 megawatts and extend its lead as the country’s top power producer.
The construction of the new plant, which will be built in collaboration with the French Development Agency, will be completed in 28 months, the firm said on Tuesday.
KenGen said the plant would complement the hydroelectricity generation from the dams during the day and save water for electricity generation at night, especially during drought.
“France is keen on partnering with Kenya in the deployment of renewable energy to stem climate change, for which Kenya has shown its prowess as demonstrated in the Olkaria Geothermal Field and the Seven Forks area,” said AFD country director Bertrand Willocquet during the signing ceremony for the project.
KenGen Managing Director Peter Njenga said the company was working to scale up its renewable energy capacity by adding additional electricity drawn from clean sources, moving Kenya towards a 100 percent green energy transition.
“This project is going to complement hydro during the day when the sun's intensity will be high, especially during the dry season. That way, we can conserve water for power generation, mostly at night,” he said.
KenGen has for years been exploring the possibility of maximising its dams by laying floating solar panels on the water to generate electricity during the day to supplement hydropower generation.
With funding from the German Development Bank (KfW), the company in 2020 contracted Norwegian firm Multiconsult to evaluate the potential of setting up hybrid floating solar PV installations on Kamburu, Kiambere, and Turkwel dams.
Floating solar plants are growing in popularity globally amid the increasing shift to renewable energies, with experts extoling their effectiveness in lowering the evaporation of water from dams.
The KenGen solar plant will help bolster the country’s solar output, which hit a record 491.48 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2023, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
This also comes at a time when there is an increased push for the government to end feed-in tariffs (FiT) for wind and solar to take advantage of falling prices for components of these technologies.
