Focus on African Wind Power Technology

Africa’s biggest wind energy collection site will soon become reality, with a vast array of wind turbines set to be installed in Kenya.  The continent’s most expansive wind farm will be comprised of around 365 turbines, be up and running in three years time and generate 300 megawatts of clean energy – 25 per cent of Kenya’s present clean energy production total. 

On a wider scale, the amount of energy to be provided from the wind farm straight into the national grid will see it ranked alongside the world’s most productive renewable energy suppliers.

African Wind Energy Production

Up until this point, African wind energy production has generally taken place in countries like Egypt and Morocco – those in the North of the country, in other words.  However, a number of new renewable energy technologies are now just starting to be developed in the South, in line with governments’ realisation of the potential that renewable energy sources have to offer.  Among the projects and ventures either already activated or in the pipeline are the following three:

A new large-scale Ethiopian wind farm with a 120 megawatt capacity.  Commissioned at a cost of £190 million and capable of producing around 15 per cent of the electricity currently used by Ethiopians

Two new Tanzanian wind power projects, intended to deliver a minimum of 100 megawatts –equivalent to over 10 per cent of the electricity used there

A cash-for-energy feed-in wind power tariff in South Africa, details of which were released earlier in 2009.

Wind Power in Africa

Kenya, though, is aiming to be at the forefront of this new wave of technologies focusing on wind power in Africa.  While the African Development Bank is a backer of the 300MW, 365 turbine site at Turkana, plans have been drawn up for another facility close to Naivasha, and there are already smaller-scale sites at other locations in the country.

Although less than 20 per cent of people living in Kenya have access to electricity, there is escalating demand for it, especially within corporations and away from urban areas. 

Simultaneously, factors including unreliable rainfall have hit the hydroelectricity industry, meaning that companies including state-owned KenGen are presently using fossil fuels like coal on a temporary basis.  The Kenyan government, however, envisages that by 2014, 800 megawatts of wind energy will have been added to the grid, along with 500 megawatts of geothermal energy.

“Kenya's natural fuel should come from the wind, hot underground rock and the sun, whose potential has barely even been considered”, UN Environment Programme spokesman Nick Nuttall stated, adding:  “After the initial capital costs this energy is free.”