In the next six years, Kenya has revealed its plans to add up to 600 MW of new wind capacity to boost access to power across the country.

According to GE Renewable Energy Regional Executive for Sub-Saharan Africa Deo Onyango, 'This is a tremendous opportunity for the wind sector and if executed well, the country will be adding between 50MW and 100MW of wind each year for the next five to six years.On the demand side, the demand for power with industry, the population and access is steadily increasing.'

He also acknowledged that Kenya's feed-in tariffs had dropped from 12 cents / kWh five years ago to about 11 cents per kilowatt hour, although the government recently set a price cap of around seven cents / kWh.

Renewable energy sources account for 70% of the nation's installed electricity capacity. The percentage is more than three times the global average. The transition to fully renewable energy could further enhance people's access to the national power grid and reduce production costs.

At Lake Turkana in Kenya's Rift Valley, Africa's largest single-wind power plant is being constructed with separate investments to develop other wind power plants.

An average of 9 million Kenyan households have access to off grid renewable energy and this figure is destined to increase. Among the development projects is the 102MW Kipeto facility, which will showcase 60 GE 1.7-103 machines and is expected to be online by 2020.