Kenya’s solar power generation capacity hit a fresh record last year following the commissioning of the 40-megawatt (MW) Alten Kenya Solarfarms plant at Kesses in Uasin Gishu.
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), which was sourced from Kenya Power, showed that solar power generation jumped to a record 491.48 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2023.
This marked an increase of 28.1 percent from an output of 383.54 million units in the previous year.
The increase in the generation of solar power follows the commissioning of the Kesses plant as well as a significant jump in output from the existing Cedate and Malindi solar farms, both of which have a capacity of 40MW.
Solar power – as well as 200MW imports from Ethiopia - came in handy to help the generation deficit caused by a 12.4 per cent decline in output from hydro as the country battled a severe drought at the beginning of last year.
Wind generation also suffered a hit of 6.2 per cent, but the significant jump in imports and generation from geothermal and solar meant that there was sufficient power.
This enabled Kenya Power to reduce purchases of expensive thermal power by 17.5 per cent.
Kenya currently has four 40MW solar plants – Selenkei, Alten, Malindi, and Cedate – supplying renewable power to the grid. The 0.3MW Strathmore solar plant also supplies a small proportion of solar energy to the grid.
The commissioning of new solar plants comes at a time when there has been an increased push for the government to end feed-in tariffs (FiT) for wind and solar to take advantage of falling prices for components of these technologies.
The Presidential Taskforce on Review of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) recommended the government stop signing new solar and wind PPAs under FiTs and instead adopt energy auctions.
The task force in its report which was submitted to former President Uhuru Kenyatta in September 2021 recommended maximum transitional tariffs of US Cents 7.5/kWh for Solar PV and US Cents 7/kWh for wind, for all projects that had not yet reached financial close.
