Nairobi — Lake Turkana Wind Power Ltd -- one of the largest wind power project in Africa and Kenya's most ambitious green energy venture yet -- has just achieved a major breakthrough with the Spanish government stepping in with a $150 million (€110 million) offer to finance construction of the transmission line.
The entry of the Spaniards has come at a time when anxiety was beginning to grow over whether the massive project would achieve financial closure.
African Development Bank, the financial arrangers of the project, had warned the government that reaching financial closure on the 300MW wind farm would be difficult without a firm commitment that financing of the transmission line was fully funded.
The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project is significant to Kenya's energy security because it will represent a fifth of Kenya's existing capacity for generating electricity.
At 300 MW, it eclipses the 290MW of expensive electricity Kenya is currently buying from diesel-fired power plants under an emergency programme to bridge the country's chronic power deficit.
Communication between Kenya's Ministries of Finance and Energy and the Spanish government over the past one month indicates that the major milestones have been met to close the financing for the project.
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