Kenya’s Energy Regulation Commission Director General Engineer Kaburu Mwirichia says the regulatory agency will forward policy notes on national utilization of solar panels in the next few weeks.
Mwirichia told reporters that the commission is currently discussing views collected from the public and stakeholders and will soon forward necessary legislation to the Minister of Energy Kiraitu Murungi for approval.
The new development is set to change Kenya’s electricity generation process which is currently dominated by hydro, geothermal, and thermal power.
“We have published the regulations,” he said in Nairobi last week when the commission was awarded the ISO certification in recognition of its service delivery. He added that the new legislation if approved by parliament will require government, public institutions, and upcoming residential buildings to install solar heating panels. The regulatory agency says national use of solar panels will come as a relief since the country is currently dependent on expensive thermal power which strains the national grid.
Toward that end, the government has also reviewed its feed-in tariff (FIT) policy incorporating three renewable energy sources: geothermal, biogas, and solar energy.
Under the reviewed FIT policy, energy companies responsible for operating the national grid will be required to purchase electricity from renewable energy sources at a pre-determined price to stimulate new investment in the renewable energy sector.
As a result this ensures that those who produce electricity from identified renewable energy sources have a guaranteed market and an attractive return on investment for the electricity they produce.
Efforts to tap into renewable sources of power in Kenya have been gathering momentum over the last two years when the government identified two wind power projects that include the Lake Turkana wind project and Ngong.
Further accelerating demand for renewable energy is a growing economy faced by threats of erratic rain patterns particularly for a country that relies heavily on its hydropower resources. The East African country currently uses between 80% and 90% of its generated electricity from its hydropower stations. Kenya has a constrained reserve margin between the actual generated electricity of 1,100 MW and the peak time demand of 1,050 MW. These combination of factors has excited companies like GE Energy, Gitson Energy, and KenGen which have already made forays in the renewable energy sector.
Engineer Kaburu Mwirichia said the mounting of the panels will be one of the requirements in the proposed building code requiring all buildings, households, and commercial entities to install solar systems.
Another African country passed a similar legislation that would require all new buildings to be equipped with solar panels. Egypt passed a ministerial legislation in the 1980s that required all homes in newly built communities to utilize solar water heating with approximately 500,000 units being installed although most are believed to be inoperable or disconnected. However, without a proper regulating body, maintenance on this equipment was never enforced and therefore had little positive change.
It will be imperative for Kenya to properly implement this legislation if it wants to see positive results, which includes enforcing upkeep and maintenance while modifying regulation to suit the always changing needs of its energy sector.
Ngigi Kamau, Alternative Energy Africa Contributor
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