The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) has provided a $35 million loan over a 15 year term to the 40MW Kesses solar project to be built near Eldoret.
The project will cost a total of $87 million. The first part of the loan was already disbursed to Alten Kenya Solarfarms BV (Alten), the Kenyan business of the Alten Group, in late December 2021.
Kenya becomes the 9th African country where EAIF, which is part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), has supported renewable energy projects in recent years. Others are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Standard Bank was the mandated lead arranger of the project finance to Alten. The Bank is supplying $41 million in debt comprising a term loan, VAT and Debt Service Reserve facility. Standard Bank is acting through its CIB and Stanbic Bank Kenya Limited divisions.
The Madrid, Spain-based independent power producer (IPP) began development of the Kesses solar project in 2013, with the procurement of land. Covering an area of 10 hectares, the solar plant is expected to have an installed capacity of 55 MWp. According to IPP, the plant will produce 123,000 MWh of electricity per year, equivalent to the needs of about 245,000 Kenyan homes.
The Kesses solar project is covered by a power purchase agreement (PPA) which stipulates that Alten will sell all the electricity produced to the state-owned Kenya Power Corporation (KPLC). The solar plant will therefore be connected to a pre-existing 230 kV transmission line between the Turkwel hydroelectric plant (56 MW) and the Lessos substation. This power line crosses the site of the plant.
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