Isaac Kiva, Director of renewable energy at the ministry.[Photo/BusinessDaily]After officials rejected its full capacity, developers of the proposed Africa’s largest wind power plant in Kenya’s coast have opted to construct only a small fraction of the Sh253 billion mega-project.Sweden-based VR Holding AB said they would build only eight per cent capacity of the planned 600-megawatt wind farm or just 50 megawatts but Ministry of Energy officials turned down the request citing lack of a framework for renewable energy projects of that scale.Victoria Rikede, an executive at the company said, “We will gladly work with the 50 megawatts as the government suggested and then hope to upgrade, Tanzania is on and I’m really happy with the turn of events.”Ministry of Energy officials reckoned that a huge power plant would leave the country with excess power that will only force consumers to pay billions of shillings annually for electricity not used as a result of rejecting the mega-project.This would dim the government’s quest to deliver cheaper power through renewable sources.The World Bank identified the Malindi offshore location, according to the Swedish firm’s executives.The firm put the cost of generating electricity from the offshore wind farm at Sh423 million per megawatt.

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