Isra-Mart srl:Kenya's largest wind farm delayed until 2013

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Isra-Mart srl news:

A 300MW wind farm planned to be built in northwest Kenya will be delayed by another eight months to 2013, according to the chairman of the company behind the project, who said investors have struggled to gain support guarantees from the government.

Carlo van Wageningen, chairman of Lake Turkana Wind Power, told reporters at an African power conference on Wednesday that the first 50MW of the €560m Lake Turkana wind farm is now slated to come online at the end of 2013, with full generation reached by mid-2014. The project has been billed as the largest wind farm in Kenya.

The company had already pushed back the initial power-up date for the first 50MW from June this year to the end of 2012. Van Wageningen said this latest delay was caused by problems the company had in obtaining support guarantees from the government.

However, in an interview with local CapitalFM, Bernard Osawa, director of renewable energy for the Kenyan Energy Regulatory Commission, accused the developers of making unreasonable demands on the government. He also expressed confidence that once Lake Turkana is completed, more wind power projects will be constructed.

"I believe [the investors] were asking for too much because their Power Purchase Agreements is as good as a guarantee, which is what everybody has," he said. "I believe that once one person comes through, the wind projects will kick off."

The news came after Emannuel Nzabanita, manager of the energy finance division for eastern and southern Africa at the African Development Bank, said the continent needs to attract private investment to its deficient power sector and create regional power pools to maximise resources.

"We must as a matter of priority encourage private sector participation in this sector," he told the same power conference on Monday.

Less than 20 per cent of Africans have access to electricity, with 30 sub-Saharan countries suffering from chronic shortages leading to forced shutdowns to ease pressure on grids that often leak power, according to Agence France Presse.

"We need first of all to resolve the efficiency issues and then also look for money to invest," said Nzabanita, adding that regional power pools should be created and countries should co-operate in order to lower costs. "There must be a change. Most African countries seem to think that they can do things alone."

The news came in the same week as the South African government reportedly approved a new plan designed to reduce the country's reliance on coal by ensuring two-thirds of new power capacity added over the next 20 years comes from renewable and nuclear sources.