Turkana's wind project recognised globally

Kenya has been recognised among nations working on long-term plans to install commercial-scale wind power, a new report has revealed.

The Turkana Wind Power project, which is the largest single wind power project in Africa, will have a capacity of 300 megawatts The report launched on Wednesday in Nairobi at the inaugural United Nations Environment Assembly says the project has led to creation of more quality jobs.

"This trade in the South-South is not only creating more jobs but is also the fastest growing in the world," the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Mukhisa Kituyi, said during the launch.

The report titled The South-South Trade in Renewable Energy - A Trade Flow Analysis of Selected Environmental Goods (EGS) points out that renewable energy (RE) trade among developing countries is growing faster than global and North-South RE.

"The EGS market - which is expected to grow to around US$1.9 trillion by 2020 - offers developing countries an unprecedented opportunity to drive the green economy transition," said UN Under-Secretary General and Unep Executive Director Achim Steiner.

The report also recognises Kenya's re-manufacturing sector. The country was lauded as having made big strides in the re-manufacturing and export of toner cartridges through an active intra-regional trade in re-manufactured products in Africa.

According to the report, trade in environmental goods and services is aimed at bringing many benefits to developing countries, including access to more appropriate and affordable goods, new jobs, regional co-operation and access to global value chains. In 2013, developing countries collectively added 20.7 GW of new wind installations - 14.6 per cent more than in 2012, the report reads.

It also says Kenya is one of the largest importers of Solar Photovoltaic products among developing countries, coming behind Myanmar and Philippines.