Kenya has completed the construction of the 100 MW Kipeto Wind Farm Project, located in Kajiado. The two partners in this project, Pan-African developer BTE Renewables and Kenyan Craftskills said all the farm’s 60 wind turbines are feeding power to the national grid.
Kipeto is the second-largest renewable power project in Kenya, behind the 310 megawatts Lake Turkana Wind Power Station. It has a power purchase agreement with KPLC for 20 years.
This project is part of former US president Barack Obama initiative, which was to add 30,000 MW of clean energy to Sub-Sahara Africa.
The construction took two years and reached a financial close in December 2018.
Actis-backed BioTherm Energy owns 88% equity while Craftskills owns 12% together with a loan from the US-based Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
In 2016, China Machinery Engineering Corporation got the contract to do engineering design, procurement, and construction of the wind farm at US$212Million.
In December 2018, Actis LLP bought out International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) to be the project’s largest shareholder.
General Electric supplied the 60 turbines to the wind farm, which can supply 250,000 homes.
According to Kenneth Namunje, Chairman and Director of Kipeto Energy Plc and Craftskills, the wind farm project took 12 years to complete. It now supplies clean and sustainable energy to consumers in Kenya.