Kenya set to tap power from renewable energy

• Move to get 2,000MW being fast-tracked as hydro power becomes more unreliable

Kenya is fast-tracking its plan to boost renewable energy as hydro power increasingly becomes unreliable due to erratic rains.

Several such power projects are scheduled to kick off next month. The initiative is being coordinated by the office of the Prime Minister.

The envisaged 20-year plan to boost the country’s power by 2,000 megawatts has been turned to a three-year “crash programme”.

In adopting renewable energy, Kenya hopes to reap added gains of turning the country into a green economy.

By going green, Kenya will be joining a global initiative to combat climate change through environment-friendly practices, that promise millions of new jobs.

The term green energy is a relatively new term in Africa but experts argue that the continent can earn billions of dollars by turning to green economies.

The green energy initiative is in tandem with the UN initiative of carbon trading. It allows developed countries to offset some of their emissions from cars, factories and homes by funding clean energy projects in the Third World.

On top of winning carbon trading points, the renewable energy generation in Kenya will inject additional power to the national grid to assuage fears of the manufacturing sector and potential investors.

Manufacturers have blamed the high cost of locally produced goods on expensive electricity tariffs.

Kenya obtains more than 75 per cent of its 1,200MW of power from hydro. The country’s only existing source of renewable energy is geothermal power, which has not been fully exploited.

By June 2012, according to Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the country will have boosted its energy capacity by up to 2,000MW through geothermal, wind, bio-fuel, solid waste and coal-driven power plants.

He outlined the green energy initiative plan to MPs during the PM’s question time just before Parliament went for recess.

Mr Odinga chairs a taskforce that is to advise the government from next month on the projects to be implemented. The taskforce’s greatest task is establishing financing partnerships with the private investors.

Members of the steering committee of the taskforce include the PM, his two deputies and the ministers for Energy, Industrialisation, Environment and Agriculture. Others are the PM’s permanent secretary and the chairpersons of Kenya Private Sector Alliance and Association of Large Power Consumers.

The experts group will be chaired by Energy PS with his counterpart at Treasury and the PM’s economic adviser acting as alternative chairs.

The membership will be drawn from KenGen, KPLC, Geothermal Development Company and the National Environmental Management Authority.

In an interview with the Nation, the PM’s economic adviser, Prof Hiroyuki Hino, explained that by embracing the green economy concept, the country would gain in two major ways.

First, he says, the country will be able to save it environment from degradation and reduce the effects of climate change.