Cost Benefit Analysis of Lake Turkana Wind Project, Kenya

Lake Turkana Wind Power is the largest single private investment in Kenya, the location for the wind farm is in an isolated rural area with powerful wind resource but suffers from no connectivity to the national grid. This study conducts a cost-benefit analysis which evaluates the financial and economic benefits of the Lake Turkana wind power plant. The results of the analysis show that the project had a return of €23.45 million in 2021 prices to the project owners. The wind power plant compared to Rabai alternative gas turbine produced a low-cost energy providing an estimated cost of €0.10 per kwh while Rabai was estimated to produce energy at €0.15 per kwh. The cost savings to grid with the project amounts to €237 million. The effect of time overrun and cost of transmission delay were estimated to be €25 million and €83 million respectively. The net economic benefit of the wind project can be estimated to be €129 million.