UN commend Kenya plan to build solar transmission line

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NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- UN officials have hailed Kenya’s plan to expand investments in renewable energy projects and called for more debate on the East African country’s plans to venture into nuclear-powered energy initiatives.

Dr. Adnan Amin, the Director-General of the UN’s International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), hailed Kenya’s efforts to harvest wind and solar power and the investment of resources to generate electricity from geothermal sources.

Kenya is planning to build a wind-power transmission line, running from Lake Turkana, the venue of what would be Africa’s largest wind-power project, to deliver the energy to the coastal region.

"The opening of wind power transmission line will open a new corridor from the coast to northern Kenya," Amin told journalists on Tuesday during a news conference at the Global Environment Ministers Forum, Jan. 20-22.

Kenyan officials hope the Lake Turkana wind power project, expected to inject some 300 megawatts of electric power when complete, will start production of an initial 50 MW in 2013.

It is expected to earn 260 million U.S. dollars from trading carbon generated under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) carbon trade programme.

"Kenya is rich in renewable energy potential," said Achim Steiner, the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) Executive Director.

Kenya’s electric power generation, largely dominated by water- powered turbines, is gradually seeking to shift the more dependable geothermal and wind powered plants due to the effects of climate change, which has sparked off ecological damage.

The country’s seven forks scheme, a combination of dams drawing its waters from forests and deep dams has witnessed the dwindling of water supplies due to the cutting down of trees and poor rainfall, sparked by unpredictable weather patterns.

East Africa’s worst drought in decades left most hydropower dams drier and with less water to support peak generation and the Arab Springs sent oil prices skyrocketing.

The World Bank and local Kenyan financial institutions are emerging as key financiers of the "green energy" drive in Kenya.

The focus has been on the expansion of geothermal power and the construction of wind-powered plants.

Victor Williams, the Head of Investment and Corporate Banking at the Standard Bank of South Africa, whose bank is also funding the renewable energy projects, said the bank was keen on financing renewable energy projects across the Eastern Africa region.

"Financing of renewable energy projects is key to our markets, especially in East Africa, where we fund geothermal, solar and biomas projects," Williams said.

He said the bank was funding the Kinangop Wind Power project in central Kenya, which aims to generate 60 MW as well as the Turkana wind power project.

It is estimated the wind power project in Turkana, northern Kenya, alone required 800 million dollars.

Williams said the Bank has also signed various agreements with Kenya’s state-funded power firm, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) for carbon trading.

The UN officials said energy was central to economic development.

"We are seeing development of technology on renewable energy in Africa," the IRENA chief said, "The action agenda must address barriers to access to energy."

The UN officials were particularly worried that while Africa possessed the highest potential of growth in renewable energy, most people in the continent were largely unable to access affordable energy.

Amin urged countries to tap into funds available from private companies across the world to improve private energy investments in their countries.

"We only use five per cent of the hydropower potential in Africa.

"Some 95 percent is less untapped.

"There are new techniques of sustainability," Amin said.

He said new mining technologies has enabled the Kenyan energy ministry to invest in geothermal extraction for electricity generation.

"We see an overreliance on supply of fossil fuels.

"Renewable energy can change the way rural areas are integrated into the national economy," Amin, a Kenyan, stated.

lectricity from wind energy will dominate production generation projects that are ongoing up to 2013, according to an updated generation data from the Ministry of Energy.

The data shows additional generation projects started last year will generate 1,657 MW by 2013.

Out of this amount, 705MW is expected to come from wind energy.

Planned and ongoing wind projects include that by KenGen in that will eventually produce 15MW, a planned project by Aeolus Wind to produce 100MW, Lake Turkana Wind to produce 300MW and Gitson Energy to produce 300MW

An additional 210MW is expected to come from geothermal indicating the government’s intention promote investment in renewable energy.

The planned projects, most of which will be done by private sector will benefit from the 400KV free transmission line planned by the government.

Report courtesy of Coast Week