Renewable energy firm ALTEN Energías Renovables has picked French company Voltalia to carry out EPC and O&M service on its new PV solar project 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 40MW 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.