Mombasa Cement Wind Power Station, is a

wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hou ...

power plant in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. The wind farm was developed and is owned by Mombasa Cement Limited, the second-largest manufacturer of cement in Kenya, with an annual output of 1.6 million tonnes annually as of November 2019. The output of this power station is intended for use in the company's clinker factory in Vipingo. Any surplus electricity is sold to

Kenya Power and Lighting Company Kenya Power and Lighting Company, commonly referred to as Kenya Power or shortened KPLC, is a public liability company which transmits, distributes and retails electricity to customers throughout Kenya. Location KPLC headquarters are at Stima P ...

(KPLC). The power station was built to mitigate against the recurrent supply failures of KPLC, which were affecting profitability at the cement manufacturer.

Location

The power station is located in the settlement of ''Vipingo'', in

Kilifi County Kilifi County was formed in 2010 as a result of a merger of Kilifi District and Malindi District, Kenya. Its capital is Kilifi and its largest town is Malindi. Kilifi county is one of the five counties that harbor the Kenyan Coast with 109km ...

, on a section of the owned by Mombasa Cement Limited. Vipingo is located approximately , north of

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

, the nearest large city.

Overview

The wind farm consists of 12 turbines, each with rated capacity of 3 MW. The facility lies adjacent to a plant that manufactures

clinker Clinker may refer to: *Clinker (boat building), construction method for wooden boats *Clinker (waste), waste from industrial processes *Clinker (cement), a kilned then quenched cement product * ''Clinkers'' (album), a 1978 album by saxophonist St ...

, used in the manufacture of cement, also owned by Mombasa Cement Limited. The clinker factory at Vipingo was also slated for an upgrade and expansion at a budgeted cost of US$74 million. A 132kV switchyard gathers the power generated here for use internally and for sale of the balance. An overhead 132kV high voltage transmission line transfers the energy generated to the KPLC substation at Kaloleni, where the excess energy enters the national grid. In 2018, the company's clinker factory in Vipingo missed work on 16 days in the year, on account of electricity blackouts imposed by KPLC, the national electricity utility distribution company. This led to the cement maker missing its production and financial targets for the year. To mitigate against the unreliable power supply, Mombasa Cement decided to build this wind farm to power its clinker factory, with the surplus power sold to KPLC.

Construction

Construction of this wind farm began during the first quarter of 2019, with commercial commissioning in December 2019.

References

External links

Mombasa Cement to build 36 MW wind farm in Kilifi
As of 26 January 2017. {{Authority control Wind farms in Kenya Energy infrastructure in Kenya Buildings and structures in Kenya Kilifi County

Location

Overview

Construction

See also

References

External links