- The plant, located in the state of Uasin Gishu, in the municipality of Eldoret, will have 40MWac installed capacity, accounting for 2% of the country’s total capacity.
- The new photovoltaic plant will produce an estimated total of 123.6 GWh / year
- ALTEN Africa has already informed the country incumbent, Kenya Power and Lighting Co | KPLC of its choice of the French company Voltalia to carry out the construction and operation & maintenance service on the plant.
- Voltalia will start construction by December 2018.
Nairobi | Kenya December 13th , 2018.-ALTEN Energías Renovables has confirmed its choice of the French company Voltalia to carry out EPC and O&M service on its new PV solar power plant in Kenya. The new plant, located in the state of Uasin Gishu, in the municipality of Eldoret, the fifth largest city by population in Kenya, will produce 40MWac of power, accounting for 2% of the installed capacity in this country of 45 million inhabitants. Kenya has become East Africa’s main economic driver in recent years.
With a presence in over 18 countries and considerable experience in development, financing, EPC and Operation & Maintenance in renewable projects, Voltalia will start construction on this plant by December. This solar project is to be built on a land area of 100 hectares and will have over 161,000 monocrystalline panels set into solar single-axis trackers.
Once it goes into commercial operation, scheduled for March 2020, approximately 123.6GWh of clean electricity will be injected every year into the electric network, enough to meet the annual energy consumption needs of over 824,000 Kenyans. Thus, the plant will avoid the emission into the atmosphere of 33.88 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent every year of the plant’s life.
The project will provide employment opportunities for the Kenyan population, both in the construction and in the Operations & Maintenance phases. ALTEN Africa has made a commitment to use the local materials available and to work with local companies as much as possible over the different phases of the project.
About ALTEN Energías Renovables
ALTEN Africa is an Independent Power Producer (IPP) specialising in solar photovoltaic technology, with offices in the Netherlands, Spain, Kenya, Nigeria and Namibia. It has great expertise in the development, financing, construction and operation of PV power plants in challenging environments. ALTEN Africa, is currently completed the financing of 55 MWp plant in Kenya. The company ended in March of this year the financial closure process of another 45.5MWp in Namibia. It has started construction on this plant, with completion expected in 2018. In addition, the company has an important pipeline of projects with more than 800 MW at various stages of development, including a 120 MWp project in Nigeria with a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with NBET (Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader). ALTEN Africa forms part of the ALTEN Energías Renovables group, together with its sister company, ALTEN America. ALTEN America has begun construction on a 350 MWp plant in Mexico with completion expected before end of 2018, after winning that country’s second electricity auction in 2016.