Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter says the project shall incorporate the latest technologies to avoid adverse environmental effects/Courtesy
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 26 – The government shall not pay for the installation of the Lamu Coal power plant despite fears that the project would be shouldered by Kenyan taxpayers.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter says the three-unit 981-megawatt project shall be undertaken by the private sector as part of a power purchase agreement.
“This is a private initiative by the private sectors who are driving and the government is not going to pay any money and Kenyans, “said the CS.
Keter added that the project shall incorporate the latest technologies to avoid adverse environmental effects.
“As a government, we need to diversify, the people who are talking about coal, they should know that there is clean coal and it is like the nuclear and technology has been progressively been improved to the latest technology of ultra-sound and there is no need to get worried,” mentioned the CS.
The plant has been in its planning stages for close six years and has faced opposition from activists and local communities.
Critics of the Coal plant moved to court to stop the completion of the project, which supports the government’s agenda to go green.
The National Environmental Tribunal is expected to deliver a ruling on the completion of the project this evening.
The Sh200 billion project was proposed by government in 2015 and was aimed at constructing a new base load capacity that will reduce dependency on wind and energy.
According to the top head under the energy sector, investors majorly concentrate on reliability and cost.
“We need to look at some of the investors that are taking keen interest on this project and they are supporting projects that will boost our economy like what we see in other countries championing going green initiative,” he mentioned.
Nigeria is one of the countries that adapted the use of power plants to reduce cost of power consumption and has now adapted nuclear power plant.
Currently two-thirds of Kenya’s electricity is currently generated by renewable resources and it has pledged to reduce its small carbon footprint by nearly a third over the next decade.
By 2030, the government hopes to have diversified on different sources of energy that will save the country facing challenges such as doing power rationing.
The CS also said that once the project is adapted, then Kenya will be able to export extra power to other countries.
“We want to compete with other nations like just what happens on stock exchange, all we need to do is focus more on the advantages of boosting our economy through the project and leave out the issues which we are focused to address,” he said.
Currently, Kenya imports power from Uganda, where a favorable tariff will be effected end of the year.
