installation of the wind power plant

 installation of the wind power plant

Wind power has been described as the process that wind is utilized in order to generate electricity or mechanical power. The process involves turbines converting kinetic energy found in the wind into mechanical power. The mechanical power is used to do particular tasks, which include pumping water, grinding grain, and can be converted into electricity through the use of generators (Borch, Munk & Dahlgaard, 2020). As much wind power is has been technologically mature and economically feasible, most of the communities have rejected the whole idea because of the visual pollution, and this has brought a lot of controversies in local communities. The aim of this paper is to conduct a research on the current controversy that involves a city concerning the installation of the wind power plant.

Currently, one of the countries in Africa called Kenya launched one of the largest wind power projects in the whole Africa. The project has been launched in one of the regions named Lake Turkana. The wind farm is expected to produce 300MW of the low-cost renewable energy in the whole nation. Kenya has become a leader in the industry of green energy, with 70% of the electricity coming from renewable sources. Therefore, the plan of the government is to promote renewable energy according to the development strategy of the nation. As much as the government wants to facilitate wind power, the local communities are having controversies with the project (Cormack & Kurewa, 2018).

The development of wind power has occupied 162 Km2 of the larger concession. The project is taking place in the valley of the Sarima in a county called Marsabit at Lake Turkana. The place is always neglected, and communities staying there are ambivalent about the project causing controversies (Borch, Munk & Dahlgaard, 2020). One of the controversies is about the concession since it involves three communities, Rendile, Turkana and Samburu. The three communities are pastoralists, and their main argument is that they use the land set aside for the project for grazing their livestock. Hence they have not agreed with the whole idea of the project because they see it as a way of taking their cultural land for a national project.

Another controversy involving wind power in Lake Turkana is about exclusion. The government and cooperate are suggesting that they are making development to an empty place where there is no one living and needs investment. On the other side, the three communities are considering the land as their concession land, and therefore, they don’t agree with the government. The development of the wind power in the area showed some forms of exclusion because during the construction of the wind farm; the communities were not compensated in order to safeguard their cultural rights, social and economic (Cormack & Kurewa, 2018).

Since the land has been owned communally, the Lake Turkana wind power acquired a large piece of land which illegally acquired. The land was leased without further consultation by the county government and, in the recent court case, alleged that land was leased unlawfully causing controversies between the county government and the communities (Borch, Munk & Dahlgaard, 2020).

Conclusion

Development of the wind power has recently become mature technologically and feasible economically, but it has brought controversies when it comes to the concession land where the investment should take place. In most cases, the communities feel as if their property is taken away from them because they are not involved in the strategic plan. They are also not compensated, and therefore, they feel intimidated from been evacuated from their cultural land hence bring controversies.

References

Borch, K., Munk, A. K., & Dahlgaard, V. (2020). Mapping wind-power controversies on social media: Facebook as a powerful mobilizer of local resistance. Energy Policy, 138, 111223.

Cormack, Z., & Kurewa, A. (2018). The changing value of land in Northern Kenya: the case of Lake Turkana Wind Power. Critical African Studies, 10(1), 89-107.

https://qz.com/africa/1700925/kenyas-huge-wind-power-project-in-turkana-hurts-local-people/