- The new solar Pv facility is located just outside of Garissa, a town which lies around 370Km east of Nairobi.
- The 54.6MW solar plant has been built by the Kenyan Rural Electrification Authority on the back of a power purchase agreement with Kenya Power.
- The solar power generated at the plant will cost Sh8 per kilowatt hour (Kenyan shillings) which is in parity to the wholesale cost off wind, and way lower than the cost of thermal generation at Sh20 per kilowatt hour.
Today Kenya is set to switch on East Africa’s largest solar Pv plant today. The new renewable energy facility is located just outside of Garissa, a town which lies around 370Km east of Nairobi. The 54.6 megawatt park is expected to be formally commissioned by President Uhuru Kenyatta. At the recently held Paris Peace Forum in France, President Kenyatta announced that his country will target to attain 100 per cent transition to green energy by 2020.
The 54.6MW solar plant has been built by the Kenyan Rural Electrification Authority (REA) and will feed into the national grid at one of the most competitive rates in comparison to other sources currently feeding into the grid. A Power Purchase Agreement with Kenya Power is already in place according to REA.
The solar power generated at the plant will cost Sh8 per kilowatt hour (Kenyan shillings) which is in parity to the wholesale cost off wind, and way lower than the cost of thermal generation at Sh20 per kilowatt hour. The project has been financed with a Sh13 billion Chinese backed loan facility for renewable energy projects in Kenya.
Kenya also recently connected 129MW of a projected 310Mw of clean power to the national grid generated by the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project (LTWP). The wind project is the single largest private investment in Kenya’s history. The wind farm covers 160 square kilometres and is located in Loiyangalani District approximately 545 kilometres north of Nairobi.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
