Kenya is emerging as the center of renewable energy in Africa. It has been ranked fifth globally in an annual Bloomberg index measuring investments and opportunities in clean energy. The BloombergNEF (BNEF) latest Climatescope report attributes Kenya’s rise to the global top five to its higher contribution of solar, wind and geothermal capacity into the energy mix. These three currently account for up to 65 percent of its energy sources. The Climatescope 2019 index methodology includes 167 indicators and sub-indicators split into three key topic areas such as the country’s previous accomplishments, its current investment environment, and the future opportunities it presents.
In 2018, Kenya’s investments in clean energy sources, at Sh140 billion is ranked the best in Africa beating many others from the developed world, including Europe. The other African country that made to the top 10 list is Morocco. Kenya scored 2.52 on the index, behind India (2.93), Chile (2.85), Brazil (2.76) and China (2.59).
Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP), commissioned in July this year, is Kenya’s largest private sector project, a wind farm, with a 310 megawatt (MW) capacity. Global technology giant, Google is among the international companies that have evinced interest in investing in the green energy project,
Norwegian investment company Norfund which has a six percent stake in the largest wind farm of its kind in Africa, disclosed Google’s interest in LTWP in its latest annual report. Norfund acquired its stake in LTWP in 2013 at a cost equivalent to Sh1.2 billion. The project is expected to boost the country’s electricity supply and cut down its reliance on the more expensive and polluting diesel-powered plants.
LTWP, whose construction started in 2014, is estimated to account for 17 percent of Kenya’s installed capacity.
Green Energy is an area of priority interest to Google. Apart from its online advertising business, the conglomerate has invested billions of dollars in solar and wind power plants as part of its effort to fight climate change. In a blog, Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai said that Google became the first company of its scale to match its entire annual electricity consumption with renewable energy in 2017 as well as 2018 and became the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the world. He added that Google’s interest spanned 52 renewable energy projects around the world, committing more than $7 billion in construction that will create thousands of new jobs. The total cost of LTWP is estimated at €623 million with debt investors providing 70 percent of the amount or €436 million. Shareholders, including Norfund, the Danish Climate Fund, Sandpiper and Finnfund, provided the rest of the capital.
