China-funded mega solar power plant to be built in Kenya

The Kenyan government has approved a mega solar power plant that will be funded by China and the project is expected to start this July and take a year to be completed, according to Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation.

The 55-megawatt solar power plant in Garissa County in Northeastern Kenya has been approved by the Rural Electrification Authority and will cost 12.8 billion Kenya Shillings ($126.2 million), according to the newspaper.

The project will be funded by the Export-Import Bank of China and is expected to be the largest grid connected solar power plant in the country.

The money would be used to set up about 210,210 solar panels spread over 85 hectares of flat desert in the northern part of the country, the electricity authority Chairman Simon Gicharu was quoted by Daily Nation as saying.

"We already have the full funding signed for. All we need to do is hit the ground running," said Gicharu.

The project is expected to power close to 625,000 homes.