In this special four-part series, Alternative Energy Africa will look at Kenya’s feed-in tariff and the revisions the government is making to create a more investor friendly climate for the country’s renewable energy sector.
With Alternative Energy Africa’s overview of a feed-in tariff (FIT) system yesterday in the first part of this series, today’s edition will discuss the original system’s components and the upgrades the East African country is set to make. The initial FIT in
In order to attract private sector capital, the Ministry of Energy has proposed that the FIT for wind energy have a fixed tariff not exceeding $0.20 kWh of electrical energy supplied in bulk to the grid operator at the interconnection point. This would be applicable to any individual wind power farms whose effective generation capacity is above 500 kw and does not exceed 100 MW. The report released by the Ministry said, “This tariff shall apply to the first cumulative 300 MW capacity of wind power plants developed in the country under this tariff policy.” It will also be valid for 20 years from the date of the first commissioning of the wind project.
The Ministry noted the importance of detailed feasibility studies to establish the technical and financial viability of this sector and promising sites. And early signs of this might be seen in a local company, Gitson Energy, getting onboard for the Lake Turkana wind project (Start-Up Company Set to Install More Wind Power in Kenya). In addition, mobile operator Vodafone, in collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent, announced the launch of a pilot site that will use a hybrid of wind and solar energy for mobile services in January (Vodafone Launches Pilot Project Using Solar and Wind). And while
Meanwhile, biomass – plant or animal-based energy resource including agricultural waste, municipal waste, biofuels, and wood fuel – had the Ministry conducting a pre-feasibility study on cogeneration from bagasse. The results proved that there was potential for immediate development of about 200 MW from the use of bagasse produced at six sugar mills in Nyanza and Western provinces. The report concluded that a firm power fixed tariff not exceeding $0.08 kWh of electrical energy to also be applied for 20 years after the date of inception. The Ministry went on to say, “Where biomass is used together with fossil fuels for the purposes of producing firm power, biomass shall contribute not less than 70% of the annual fuel consumption – otherwise non-firm power tariffs will apply.”
A non-firm power tariff would not exceed $0.06 and apply to the first 50 MW of non-firm power generating biomass plants. However, Kenya currently has very little going on in this sector other than Mumias Sugar producing 26 MW of energy made from a byproduct of sugar production. And while some are concerned about the country’s oil-fired power stations cropping up,
The country also announced in November that it was accepting bids for a waste-to-energy plant, with a February announcement that the government was expediting the process searching for consultancies to carry out studies for electricity generation from flower farms’ waste and biogas from sewage systems.
In June 2009, electricity distributor Kenya Power and Lighting (KPLC) announced that it signed two power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) and Genpro Power Systems East Africa Ltd. for mini-hydro projects. Currently, hydro is leading the way with an installed capacity of 677.3 MW and is anticipated to continue its uphill stride.
Tomorrow Alternative Energy Africa will focus on the newest additions to the FIT system in
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