UK’s Gemcorp Capital Seeds $150 Million Into Kenyan Clean Energy Platform

UK based Gemcorp Capital Management Limited has committed a substantial capital investment into Milele Energy, a clean energy platform to be headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya that will focus on development, acquisition, and optimization of clean energy assets across sub-Saharan Africa.

Gemcorp said that the seed investment includes funding for the planned acquisition by Milele of a significant stake in Africa’s largest wind farm, Kenya’s Lake Turkana Wind Power Project. It will further make significant expansion in generation capacity from available wind and solar resources.

“Each of Milele’s investments will aim to create hundreds of direct jobs during construction and potentially several thousand indirect jobs through the provision of clean and low-cost green electricity to power Kenya’s industrial growth,” said official statement of Gemcorp.

The initiative was announced at the AmCham Business Summit in Kenya attended by Kenya’s President William Ruto, US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman, Milele’s Chairman Jay Ireland and CEO Erik Granskog, and Gemcorp Capital Clean Energy Portfolio Manager Pranav Khamar.

The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project taps wind resource that ranks amongst the world’s top 0.1%, making it one of the most productive wind farms in the world, with expansion opportunities able to produce multiple gigawatts, as Kenya’s energy demand expands to necessitate it.

The Gemcorp investment will also support Milele Energy’s execution of a 500MW+ pipeline of strategically important power infrastructure projects across Africa, spanning both renewable technologies and gas-for-baseload applications.

Atanas Bostandjiev, CEO of Gemcorp Capital, said, “The Lake Turkana Wind Project is a critical contributor to the portfolio of green energy capacity in Kenya and has provided up to 30% of electricity produced in 2022. We are delighted to be at the forefront of powering an economy which has immense potential for industrial development and growth that will provide opportunities for the country’s growing population.”

Milele Energy Chairman Jay Irelan, stated, “Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest growing population: with 70% of sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30. By 2050, a quarter of the world’s people will be African, with over 500 million unique households and a growing middle class, driving consumer spending. Milele’s mission is to unlock Africa’s abundant clean energy potential to meet the immense energy demands on the continent in a low-cost, sustainable, and responsible manner.”

Last January, state-owned Kenya Electricity Generation Company (KenGen) revealed that it planned of add 3000 MW of renewable energy to the national grid over a span of a decade.