By Andrew Ross
NAIROBI, Kenya
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta broke the ground on Thursday to kick-off the construction of Africa’s biggest wind power project at Lake Turkana in northwest Kenya.
The project is expected to cost the East African country some $700 million and is backed by a large number of investors from around the world.
“The project promises to raise 310 megawatts of electricity upon completion,” Kenyatta told investors at the site of the wind power project. “It represents 14 percent of current installed capacity and translates into enough energy to meet a big portion of our domestic consumption.”
Mugo Kibati, chairman of the Lake Turkana Wind project, said the project will employ 1,700 locals from the region.
Powering education
In February 2015, Kenya added 280 megawatts of power to the national grid when it unveiled one of the world’s biggest geothermal power plants.
The power plant lowered the price of electricity in the East African country.
Kenyatta said the main beneficiaries of geothermal energy will be Kenyan students who will receive free power connections, saying the move will improve school performance.
“The benefits of expanded electric power production have radiated to every part of the country. 17,551 primary schools all over Kenya have been connected to electricity while work is in progress for the remaining 3,617 primary schools,” Kenyatta said at the opening ceremony, noting that it represented 83 percent of all Kenyan schools connected to power.
Kenya is on a quest to become Africa’s green energy hub, attracting big companies such as tech giant Google, which has shown interest to invest in the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project.
More than 70 percent of Kenya's electricity comes from green and other renewable energy sources, as the East African country insists on maintaining a low carbon footprint and increasingly cut its carbon emissions.
