Kenya to generate over half of its electricity through solar power by 2016
Government invests $1.2bn jointly with private companies to build solar power plants across the country
Kenya has identified nine sites to build solar power plants that could provide more than half the country's electricity by 2016.
Construction of the plants, expected to cost $1.2bn (£73m), is set to begin this year and initial design stages are almost complete. The partnership between government and private companies will see the state contributing about 50% of the cost.
Kenya: Solar Energy May Be Just What Kenya Needs for Industrial Take-Off
When President Uhuru Kenyatta reconstituted the Rural Electrification Authority board recently and appointed me chairman, I joined a team that was committed to enhancing the authority's contribution towards achieving Kenya's development goals.
We are faced with a number of questions on how best to do this, including what we can do to ensure Kenya exploits its solar energy and how the country is faring in the use of solar energy, compared with other countries.
In answering these questions, we began by focusing on the basic logic that informed the establishment of REA, which was to ensure Kenyans in the rural areas are given a chance to access electricity for their advancement. That is why REA has embarked on the one-solar-panel-per-home campaign in regions that are far from the national grid.
Kenya: New Kenyan Law to Regulate Oil, Gas Exploration
Kenya's parliament is scheduled to debate a new petroleum Bill that will establish an independent upstream regulatory authority and a sovereign wealth fund.
If the law is passed, the national government will retain 75 per cent of the profit from commercial oil and gas produced, with the county governments hosting the deposits getting 20 per cent and the local community 5 per cent.
The county governments are expected to legislate on the establishment of boards of trustees and the prudent utilisation of the funds received, says the Petroleum Exploration and Production Bill, 2015, which is already before parliament.
Developing nations need Sh13 trillion geothermal investment by 2030
Kenya and Turkey have exceeded forecasts for harnessing geothermal energy, but other developing countries, including Indonesia and the Philippines, are lagging behind on leveraging the renewable power source, a new analysis shows.
If developing nations are to carry out the planned expansion of geothermal energy capacity, $133 billion (Sh13.7 trillion) needs to be invested in the sector by 2030, the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) research group reported on Wednesday.
Meeting the target to build 23GW of geothermal capacity over the next 15 years (one GW is enough energy to power 750,000 homes) would require a 7- to 10-fold increase in funding from governments and development financing bodies, the CPI said.
