On solar power, let’s do a California

On June 6, City Hall, the seat of Nairobi City County government, right in the centre of Kenya’s capital, was steeped in a blackout for two days due to a Sh732 million electricity bill.

The devolved government had lost a court case three weeks earlier, which it had filed in 2016 seeking to stop Kenya Power from disconnecting supply.

That’s not the scary part of it, however. It would have been scarier had Pumwani Maternity Hospital, Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, City Mortuary, public primary and nursery schools and county depots and even streetlights switched off.

The bureaucrats at City Hall could easily back up with generators but the life-threatening scenario of the county-managed facilities would make for a good allegory for the television series, 1,000 Ways to Die. To put this in perspective, consider the State of California, in the United States of America.

ENERGY PRODUCTION

A leader in green energy, California made a bold move in May, passing a law that requires at least half of its electricity to come from non-carbon-producing sources by 2030. Solar power has increasingly become a driver in the growth of the state’s alternative energy production.

California is known as a resort state with its glitzy razzmatazz of Hollywood celebrities with almost the same population as Kenya — 40 million. One of the richest US states with a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita 40 times that of Kenya, by the end of last year it had installed solar capacity that produces 16 per cent of its electricity in an industry that employs 86,000 workers.

But how could one of the largest consumers of electricity, county governments, accumulate such huge power bills?

SOLAR REVOLUTION

It is basic economics that the counties, just like the national government, can spur an economy by virtue of its investments spending.

Focus has been on traditional infrastructure projects such as roads and buildings, which, to a great extent, are beholden to corruption rings.

How about staging a ‘solar revolution’ as a county energy initiative? What if the counties led in sourcing their own electricity by investing in mini grid solar power plants?

That would not only bolster President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four legacy projects, specifically manufacturing, by freeing up energy from the domestic market to industries but also create jobs for the youth.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) directive of installing solar water heaters for new houses of three or more bedrooms could further be enhanced by a requirement of, say, a 100-watt solar system with capacity to power five light bulbs for up to five hours and basic electronics such as entertainment systems and refrigerators.

Kenya has the same amount of sunshine as California — an average solar irradiance, measured in kilowatt hours per square metre per day (kWh/m2/day) onto a horizontal surface, of about 6.1.

URBAN DWELLERS

The big challenge for Kenya would be that most urban dwellers are tenants. What of a person living in a multi-storeyed flat, say in Nairobi’s Doonholm Estate, with tens of houses; how can they benefit from a solar revolution?

California had a practical answer to that with a clause that “builders must take one of two steps: Make individual homes available with solar panels or build a shared solar-power system serving a group of homes. In the case of rooftop panels, they can either be owned outright or be leased”.

For peri-urban and rural dwellers, where real estate is relatively aplenty, a localised Feed-in Tariff (FiT) into a mini grid sponsored by a county government can do.

Renters and landlords alike who live in buildings that don’t, or can’t, have solar panels on the roof can join something known as a community solar group.

The Doonholm tenant, for instance, can lower his electricity bill by connecting his solar panel to a solar mini grid sitting on a farmer’s land in Kitengela.

SOLAR CHAMAS

These community groups, more like solar chamas, essentially broker the sale of solar power to the utility company; the Doonholm tenant will consecutively be a power producer and consumer, considerably reducing, if not eliminating, his power bills.

A step in the direction of California may just be what Nairobi needs to finally pacify the power utility. If, for instance, it sources 50 per cent of its energy from solar, it would halve its power bills.

And if a FiT regime were implemented as anticipated by the Energy Bill 2017, then the counties, with their vast acreage of rooftops in its institutions and land, could turn the tables and start billing Kenya Power for wattage supplied.

Ms Hassan is a branch manager (Kisumu) for SolarNow, which has operations in Kenya and Uganda. [email protected].