Kenya 300MW Wind Power Project

The Bubisa Wind Power Project (hereinafter referred to as the “Project”) lies in Marsabit District, a semi-desert area in north Kenya. The site is seated at an altitude of 540 to 620m and occupies an area of 75km2. The proposed installed capacity of the Project is 200MW. The site is about 42km away from Marsabit town and 470km away from Nairobi, capital of Kenya.

Fig 1-1 Site location

Fig 1-2 Site terrain

The Project has very outstanding wind resources. The observatory most close to the Project site has a wind speed of 10.6m/s 10m above the ground and its corresponding power density is 985.7W/m2. The major wind direction and wind power directions are SSW and S. The major wind speed brackets are between 6 and 15 m/s, accounting for 89.95% of all wind data. The wind power is concentrated between 9 to 20m/s, making up a percentage of 91.3% of the total wind power.

There are hilly-to-flat terrains southeast to the site and flatland northwest to the sites. No exposed bed rocks are found and the overburden layer consists of sand, hardcore and block stones. No earthquakes heavier than 4 degree in Richter scale are recorded and but there were earthquakes between 7 to 7.9 degree in Richter scale which occurred northwest to the outskirts of the site. At the site surface water is scarce and underground water is relatively deeply buried. No bad physical and geological developments are found. The site basically meets the foundation work of the power generating units while volcanic rocks could be utilized as concrete aggregate.

With 200 units and each has a capacity of 1,500kW, installed capacity of the Project reaches 300MW. Annual power injection into the power grids are 1026GWh, that is 3,541 hours of operation in full load condition. Power generation of each unit is 5.311GWh.