The Danish wind turbine producer Vestas has secured an order for 365 V52-850 kW turbines for the 310 MW Lake Turkana Wind Power project in Kenya.
The order is the largest in Vestas's history – in terms of the number of wind turbines in a single project – and the project is expected to be Africa's largest wind power plant when completed in 2017.
”Lake Turkana Wind Power Ltd has made a historic commitment to a clean energy future for Kenya, and we are very proud to play an active role in bringing to life Africa’s largest wind power plant,” Christoph Vogel, the president of Vestas Central Europe, said in a press release.
”Eastern and southern Africa are key markets for Vestas, and the Lake Turkana project will establish Kenya among the continent’s wind energy leaders.”
READ MORE: Vestas confirms 2014 employee growth of 500 jobs in Denmark
Funded by Danish aid
The Lake Turkana Wind Power project is also being partially funded with 87 million kroner of aid from the partly state-owned climate investment fund Klimainvesteringsfonden, while the quasi-government-owned export credit agency Eksportkreditfonden has issued guarantees of about one billion kroner.
The project – which will save Kenya about 1.1 billion kroner in fuel imports annually – is expected to produce the equivalent of about 15 percent of the country’s current electricity consumption.
”It's a good day for green energy and employment in Kenya,” Mogens Jensen, the trade and development minister, said in a press release.
”The project will be completed using financing via Klimainvesteringsfonden and that shows that we, via close public and private co-operation, can produce results that benefit the global climate and Danish business and contribute to growth and employment in Kenya.”
Vestas has also installed wind turbines in several other African nations, including Cape Verde, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa.
