55 MW PV Plant For Kenya Soon?

• Kenya's Rural Electrification Authority maintains that work on a 55 MW solar power plant will soon begin
• The agency says all obstacles for building the plant are overcome
• It is set to approve the designs for the plant by next week
• The Garissa plant is expected to cost around 12.8 billion Kenyan Shillings ($124 million)
• Construction of the project was earlier scheduled to begin July 2016

After severe delays, Kenya is apparently all set to start construction of the 55 MW solar power plant in Garissa County. The project is supposed to cost around 12.8 billion Kenyan Shillings ($124 million), and expected to be completed within 1 year.

Speaking to Kenyan News Agency (KNA), Rural Electrification Authority (REA) Chairman Simon Gicharu said, "All the bottlenecks to the Garissa solar plant, the biggest in East and Central Africa, are over and next week, we are set to approve the designs and it will take one year to complete."

His department was allocated 7 billion Kenyan Shillings ($67 million) in financial year 2017-18, out of which 2.5 billion Kenyan Shillings ($24 million) have been committed to the development of solar power and diesel generators.

Construction of the project was earlier scheduled to begin July 2016 (see 55 MW Solar Plant For Kenya). The project was first announced in 2012, and JinkoSolar was planned to supply the modules.