KP&P Africa B.V. (KP&P) is a Dutch company. In 2006, KP&P founded Lake Turkana Wind Power Ltd. (LTWP), which initiated the development of the Lake Turkana Wind Power project near Lake Turkana in northwest Kenya. The construction of the wind farm started in January 2015. The wind farm delivered its first electricity to the grid in September 2018 and is fully operational since March 2019.
The wind farm has a total capacity of 310.25 MW and is providing clean and affordable energy to the Kenyan national grid (on average 15% of Kenya’s energy demand). As a result, the wind farm reduces Kenya’s dependency on diesel and heavy fuel power stations and makes an important contribution to Kenya’s carbon emission reduction.
The wind farm offers (direct and indirect) employment to approximately 400 persons, which largely come from the local, primarily pastoralist, communities (El Molo, Rendille, Samburu and Turkana). In addition to that, the project benefits are shared with the local communities through the Winds of Change Foundation. Furthermore, the revenues of the sale of the carbon credits generated by the wind farm are for a large part returned to the Kenya Power and Lighting Corporation (KPLC), and are to be invested in development projects in the wider project area.
Until now, the Lake Turkana Wind Power project is the single largest private investment in the history of Kenya.