Managing Director(MD) and Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), Ms Rebecca Miano on March 18, 2021. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NMG
Kenya will this week hold its first conference on renewable energy as the nation steps up efforts to cement its position as the African leader in the use of electricity from clean sources.
The two-day event to be held this Thursday and Friday is an initiative of the Nation Media Group, the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) and the Ministry of Energy.
Top government officials from the Energy ministry, firms in the sector and financial institutions will discuss challenges hampering Kenya’s efforts to scale up the use of clean energy and recommend measures to address the hurdles.
Kenya has in recent years stepped up the use of clean energy like geothermal, wind and solar energy but the country remains short on tapping vast potential.
Kenya is one of the world’s top 10 countries in the use of geothermal energy with 90 percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources notably geothermal and wind.
“The conference will provide Kenya and Africa at large with an opportunity to come up with actionable frameworks and solutions for Africa’s energy transition and security to leapfrog the continent to the next level of socio-economic development in a sustainable manner,” reads a note on the conference.
Kenya has in recent years scaled up the use of clean energy such as geothermal, wind and solar energy in a gradual phase-out of dirty power from thermal plants.
Data shows that geothermal power accounts for 37.3 percent of the country’s electricity mix while the share of wind and solar is 16 and one percent, bringing to 54.3 percent the share of clean energy in the national grid.
Power from hydro sources accounts for 30 percent while diesel-powered thermal plants provide 10 percent. The remaining two percent is imported electricity.
The forum will also offer African countries an opportunity to step up local partnerships to scale up the generation of electricity from clean sources.
KenGen is currently drilling geothermal wells in Ethiopia adding to similar deals that the firm has clinched in Rwanda and Djibouti since 2019.
Financiers such as The World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), European Investment Bank (EIB), German’s KfW, the French Development Agency (AFD), Japan’s JICA, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and A.P. Moller Capital will attend the conference.
The conference will be held at Olkaria, the hub of KenGen’s geothermal power generation operations.
