New Wind Farm For Kenya  

ENN has a report on a new wind farm planned for Kenya that would provide up to 20% of the nation's power supply -Kenya firm plans 300 MW wind farm by 2012.

A Kenyan firm plans to produce 300 MW of electricity by 2012 by harnessing renewable wind power in the north of the country, its director told Reuters.

Turkana Wind Power has been studying the viability of wind power projects in the barren, inhospitable region for the last four years, Chris Staubo said. "Full production will be in June 2012 but we should start production in June 2011," he told Reuters late on Thursday.

Once completed, the project could meet about a quarter of Kenya's total energy demand, which stands at some 1,200 MW, just slightly below the installed capacity.

The government is looking at developing "green" energy sources, such as wind and geothermal, to meet demand that is growing at around 8 percent a year.

Staubo said the total project cost would be about $760 million and that the African Development Bank (AfDB) had indicated it would finance 30 percent of that.