Nairobi – A 144 million dollars Kenyan wind power project has been cancelled due to opposition from local landowners and farmers, developer Kinangop Wind Park said on Tuesday.
Kinangop’s 60.8 Mega Watt (MW) project in Nyandarua County in central Kenya was due to come online by mid-2015, but progress was hobbled by disputes with residents over compensation for land.
Last year, local farmers also opposed the project because they were being forced to sell their land.
They also said the turbines could cause health problems which the developer denied.
Kinangop, in a statement, on Tuesday said protests by locals had made it difficult for workers to build the wind farm.
“Due to the consequent material delay, project funds have been depleted and the project can no longer be completed by the shareholders,” it said.
The project had aimed to provide electricity to an estimated 150,000 Kenyan homes by 2018.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
Its failure is a setback for the East African nation’s drive to increase its power generation capacity by 5,000 MW in the five years to end 2017.
Kenya’s other wind power projects include the 300 MW Lake Turkana Wind Power site in the north of the country.
Kinangop’s main investor is Africa Infrastructure Investment Fund II which is advised by African Infrastructure Investment Managers, a joint venture between Macquarie and Old Mutual.
The rest of the stake is held by Norway’s Investment Fund for Developing Countries, Norfund.
General Electric has won the contract to supply the plant’s turbines. (Reuters/NAN)
