Located near Lake Turkana, initial electric production could begin in three years. Photo: Wikipedia
Treehugger has an article about a proposed 300 MW wind farm near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. It is an interesting location choice as the region has been unstable for some time. At least it was back in 2002. After a particularly crap mission in South Sudan I was afforded the opportunity to sit in the co-pilot seat of a small twin-engine aircraft on the flight back from Loki to Nairobi. I remember as the relatively harsh terrain west of Lake Turkana gave way to verdant green hills north of Nairobi. From the article:
In any nation a wind farm of this size is worth announcing, but when it’s going to be built in Africa it’s doubly worth announcing. Lake Turkana Wind Power has announced plans to develop a 300 MW wind farm on 150,000 acres of land in northwest Kenya near, appropriately enough, Lake Turkana. Here are the rest of the details:
30% of Funding Coming from African Development Bank
Planned to be built in stages, with each of the project’s 360 turbines coming online as it is installed, the wind farm will start initial production in June 2011 and reach full capacity in 2012. Total costs for the project are expected to be about $760 million, 30% of which will be financed by the African Development Bank.
Some of you may remember Lake Turkana from the movie ‘The Constant Gardener‘. Here’s a wonderful song from the film for you to listen while you read the rest of the article.
I can’t help but wonder what President Obama and, by extension, Secretary of State Clinton have in store for Kenya in the coming years. Hopefully, we’ll see a concerted effort to effect change in the country following last year’s violence. Hopefully, the Lake Turkana wind farm is a first step in the right direction.
