Kipeto Energy Ltd reached financial close on 17 December at its 102MW wind power project in Kajiado county, Kenya. The announcement followed finalisation of the sale of 88% of the project company to the UK-based private equity company Actis LLP, which acquired the stakes of the IFC InfraVentures and the African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM). It also acquired part of the stake of original developer Craftskills Wind Energy International, which holds the remaining 12%.
Craftskills initiated the project in 2010, with AIIM and IFC InfraVentures joining in 2014. A 20-year power purchase agreement was signed with Kenya Power in 2016. The plant will use 60 GE 1.7-103 wind turbines and a 17km 220kV transmission line connecting to the Isinya substation. The United States’ Overseas Private Investment Corporation is providing $233m senior debt for the project, underwritten by a bespoke ten-year guarantee from the African Trade and Insurance Agency.
Kipeto Energy chairman and director Kenneth Namunje said, “we have leased and secured more than 60 plots within the project area for the wind turbine footprint and the transmission line through the voluntary participation of land owners, which is a first for any project of this kind in Kenya, and we’re constructing new houses for the families outside the project’s 500-metre buffer zone, so local buy-in has been a vital component.”
China Machinery Engineering Corporation is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project and General Electric Renewable Energy will be the operations and maintenance contractor. Haidco is supplying construction equipment and will build the community housing.
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