The heightened pace of industrialisation in Africa has led to a rapid growth in energy demand, yet many governments still face the massive challenge of supplying adequate electricity. Inadequate energy supply has compromised domestic electricity consumption and prevented the full realisation of public, commercial and industrial services to spur social and economic growth. Africa has the richest solar resources in the world but has only installed five gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaics (PV), which is less than one per cent of the global total. PV is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effects. A study on renewable sources of energy has revealed how clean captive generation through solar PV has rapidly evolved for the business market in Kenya. Most commercial and industrial businesses have for a long time had to contend with unreliable electricity supply, expensive grid tariffs and diesel back-up systems, which impedes their efficiency, sales and competitiveness. Kenya is among the few countries in Africa that have experienced the highest growth in captive PV instalments, according to a report released recently by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Technical University of Denmark (UNEP-DTU) partnership.
The groundbreaking work examines the key drivers, barriers and risks as well as how PV firms have leveraged on the market. The report covers data on the captive PV installations in Kenya totalling nearly 40 megawatts (MW). Captive solar PV systems are rapidly emerging as an alternative for self-generation for commercial and industrial consumers to complement the grid, switch from diesel generation or adoption of fully off-grid solutions with battery storage. Rapidly falling global PV prices, increasing energy demand and available financing have enabled the rapid growth trend in Kenya. The demand stems from high-energy intensive consumers in the industrial sector (14.2MW), commercial businesses (11.5MW), […]