Storskaliga vindkraftsprojekt i Afrika

Fram tills nu har vindkraftsproduktionen i Afrikanska länder varit väldigt liten. 2008 var den totala installerade kapaciteten på hela kontinenten 583 MW, vilket bör ge omkring 1,5 TWh per år. Som jämförelse var Sveriges vindkraftsproduktion 2008 knappt 2 TWh. Men nu börjar det planeras för storskaliga vindkraftsprojekt i bland annat Egypten, Marocko, Kenya, Tanzania, Etiopien och Sydafrika:

Some 365 giant wind turbines are to be installed in desert around Lake Turkana in northern Kenya – used as a backdrop for the film The Constant Gardener – creating the biggest windfarm on the continent. When complete in 2012, the £533m project will have a capacity of 300MW, a quarter of Kenyas current installed power and one of the highest proportions of wind energy to be fed in a national grid anywhere in the world.
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As a short-term measure KenGen is relying on imported fossil fuels, such as coal and diesel. But within five years the government wants to drastically reduce the reliance on hydro by adding 500MW of geothermal power and 800MW of wind energy to the grid. Not only are they far greener options than coal or diesel, but the countrys favourable geology and meteorology make them cheaper alternatives over time. The possibility of selling carbon credits to companies in the industrialised world is an added financial advantage.
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Already Ethiopia has commissioned a £190m, 120MW farm in Tigray region, representing 15% of the current electricity capacity, and intends to build several more. Tanzania has announced plans to generate at least 100MW of power from two projects in the central Singida region, more than 10% of the countrys current supply. In March, South Africa, whose heavy reliance on coal makes its electricity the second most greenhouse-gas intensive in the world, became the first African country to announce a feed-in tariff for wind power, whereby customers generating electricity receive a cash payment for selling that power to the grid.
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Egypt has declared plans to have 7,200MW of wind electricity by 2020, meeting 12% of the countrys energy needs. Morocco has a 15% target over the same period.

Det vindkraftsprojekt vid Lake Turkana i Kenya som nämndes i inlägget ska nu, något försenat, börja byggas. Vindkraftsparkens framtida produktionskapacitet på 300 MW motsvarar en femtedel av landets nuvarande elproduktionskapacitet. Kostnaden bedöms bli lägre än 12 UScents (86 öre) per kWh.

The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project (LTWP) aims to provide 300MW of reliable, low cost wind power to the Kenya national grid, equivalent to approximately 20% of the current installed electricity generating capacity.  The Project is of significant strategic benefit to Kenya, and at Ksh75 billion (€582 million) will be the largest single private investment in Kenya’s history.  The wind farm site, covering 40,000 acres (162km2), is located in Loyangalani District, Marsabit West County, in north-eastern Kenya, approximately 50km north of South Horr Township.

The Project will comprise 365 wind turbines (each with a capacity of 850 kW), the associated overhead electric grid collection system and a high voltage substation.  The Project also includes upgrading of the existing road from Laisamis to the wind farm site, a distance of approximately 204km, as well as an access road network in and around the site for construction, operations and maintenance.
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The Government of Kenya’s Least Cost Development Power Plan shows that LTWP wind power will be the least cost power generation option available in the country along with geothermal power and at even less cost than the feed in tariff for other wind projects set at US$12 cents/kWh. ... The LTWP tariff will be approximately 60% cheaper than thermal power plants.
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50 to 90MW of capacity to be commissioned by December 2013. ... The wind farm will be fully operational at 300 MW by late 2014.

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