FACTBOX-Africa wind power projects and potential

June 30 (Reuters) - Despite Africa's vast wind power
potential, only 563 megawatts are generated due to financial,
regulatory and political hurdles. [ID:nLU153989]

This is a list of ongoing and planned wind projects.

INSTALLED WIND POWER CAPACITY (in MW, end 2008)

Egypt 390.0
Morocco 125.2
South Africa 21.8
Tunisia 20.0
Cape Verde 2.8
Nigeria 2.2
Eritrea 0.8
Namibia 0.5

EGYPT

Egypt plans to have wind power supply some 12 percent of the
country's energy mix by 2020, with wind farms supplying some
7,200 MW of electricity [ID:nLU171985].

The Ministry of Electricity has allocated 300,000 feddans
(126,000 hectares) of land in the Gulf of Suez for wind farms.

ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia signed a $307.8 million deal last year for the
construction of a 120 MW wind farm within two and a half years.

KENYA

Kenya's Lake Turkana Wind Power plans to produce 300 MW of
electricity from wind in the north of the country by 2012,
providing about a quarter of Kenya's power demand of 1,200 MW.

MOROCCO

Morocco plans to have wind contribute 15 percent of its
energy supply by 2020 to improve the kingdom's trade balance.
Studies have shown that Morocco has the potential to produce
6,000 MW of wind energy, up from the 125 MW installed now.

SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa plans to build a wind farm with an initial
capacity of 100 MW by March 2010, to be later expanded to 200
MW, but utility Eskom has delayed awarding the tender.

The government said it plans to have independent power
producers supply 400 MW of wind power in the next three years.

TANZANIA

The Ministry of Energy and Minerals said the country plans
to build a 50 MW wind power project in central Tanzania. It is
due to become operational in 2015, but the government is pushing
to have it ready by 2010.

TUNISIA

The country has installed a 20 MW plant in its north-east
and plans to scale the project up to 55 MW. In the future it
plans to add further 100 MW to the grid from wind, with projects
to be based on soft terms loans.

Source: Reuters, World Wind Energy Association, Internet
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; Additional reporting by Maha El
Dahan in Cairo, George Obulutsa in Dar es Salaam and Tom
Pfeiffer in Rabat; Editing by Keiron Henderson)