Kenya receives 4 – 6 kWh per square meter of insolation per day. This is equivalent to 250 Mtoe per day. Despite this potential, only a small portion is harnessed and converted into utilizable forms.
Solar energy technologies prove to be the most convenient low carbon technologies that communities could strive for meeting their cooking and lighting requirements alongside a myriad of energy demands at farm and industrial levels. By 2009, it is estimated that 220,000 solar PV units were already in use in Kenya. Nevertheless the potential, there are a number of challenges – institutional, policy and regulatory, financial and technical - that still need to be addressed in order to ensure the sustainable, large-scale implementation of the decentralized solar energy devices in Kenya, especially for rural electrification.
The lack of affordable access to clean energy has seen petroleum fuel accounting for about 28.57% of the total final energy consumption while electricity and combustible renewable (biomass) accounting for about 3.11% and 67.65% of the total final energy consumption. This workshop will bring together experts from the practical and academic sides of this topic, to explore the current issues, identify barriers, and possible solutions regarding large scale dissemination of solar energy systems.
Interested participants are requested to confirm to Wycliffe Amakobe, on or before 3rd June 2014
