Solar Power

Kenya’s 40 MW Kesses 1 solar PV facility expected online in Q2 2022

Picture: SOAPRO Angola

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In Kenya, Alten Energías Renovables is expected to commission its 40 MW Kesses 1 solar PV plant in the spring this year.

The company is currently constructing the facility outside of Eldoret in Kenya. It is located only 1km away from the existing Eldosol and Radiant solar plants of Frontier Energy, each equipped with a solar power generation capacity of 40 MW. Together, they form what is known as the Eldoret Solar City, and one of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest solar complexes.

Kesses 1 is notably financed by the Standard Bank of South Africa and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG). Standard Bank is supplying $41 million in debt comprising a term loan, VAT and Debt Service Reserve facility. Meanwhile, the EAIF is providing a US$35 million loan over a 15-year term.

“The first part of the loan was disbursed to Alten Kenya Solarfarms BV (Alten), the Kenyan business of the Alten Group, in late December 2021,” the EAIF said in a statement last week.

Kesses 1 is being developed in parallel with the 50 MW Kopere Solar PV Plant located 60km away, as both projects are executed by the same contractor, Voltalia.

Full details on the solar power plants within Kenya’s Eldoret Solar City are available in the “Projects” section within your Hawilti+ research terminal.

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