The Energy Management Awards and the Kenya Sustainable Energy Day 2016

The Energy Management Awards is an annual event in which we celebrate the great milestones our nation has taken to develop Clean Sustainable Energy. The Theme of this year’s Conference is “Financing the Next Phase in Clean Energy Development” This is a time of such great optimism for Kenya; our country is going through a Clean Energy Revolution

We recognize our government for showing great leadership in spearheading the medium-term development of 5,000MW of new Installed Power Capacity. Most of this installed capacity will comprise of renewable energy to provide the base-load power.

We stand here today to celebrate these Sustainability milestones in our nation.

The private sector is expected to play a major role in this programme, providing for over 60% of this new power capacity. In an effort to encourage accelerated investment in renewable energy development, the government has formulated the feed-in-tariffs policy for Independent power production in Clean Energy;

As part of the ongoing socio-economic development agenda, we stand with our government in promoting this noble initiative; we believe that we cannot plan for development and fail to provide sufficient energy to drive it. Electricity has to be there by the time projects and programmes commence.

Despite the challenges in our nation Kenya remains the most attractive investment destination in Africa, business competitiveness is improving, literacy levels improving, poverty levels are falling, and the middle class is rising.

Kenya’s economy is projected to grow by over 6% in both 2017, and 2018. Despite pressure on the shilling, Kenya’s economy has shown great resilience and continues to grow at a robust pace.

Kenya is emerging as one of Africa’s key growth centers and is also poised to become one of the fastest growing economies in East Africa, supported by lower energy costs, investment in infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing and services.

So what does this mean for us, in industry and in the energy sector? The answer is clear. If we wish to continue this growth, and pull even more people out of poverty, we need to fuel this growth. We need to power our industries, businesses, schools, and cities;

And that will be no simple matter.

Let us look at a couple of numbers.

• Kenya’s current energy mix is predominantly comprised of 4 energy sources: Biomass, Petroleum, Hydropower, and Geothermal.
  Traditional Biomass sources account for 70% of the energy consumption in Kenya, with the rest accounting for 30%.
• In the electricity sector, thanks to initiatives from our Partners, Kengen, most of our baseload power comprises mostly of Hydro-power, and Geothermal.
• As the County governments take shape, electricity demand will rise sharply as economic activity increases in these communities. For instance, energy intensive activities, such as, mining, fabrication of iron and steel products, irrigation, agro-processing,
• In the space of a generation, we need to build new energy infrastructure to support millions of Kenyans.

How will we do this? Can we power this new Kenya in a way which fosters equitable human development, which is sustainable, secure and protects livelihoods and the environment?

The decisions we make at this forum, and in the next couple of years will have a profound impact not only on our citizens, but on the future of our nation.

Now here’s the good news about this challenge.

• Kenya, if we wished, could power all its needs with renewable energy. In fact, Kenya has enough renewable energy potential to be entirely self-sufficient. In addition, we could do so in a way that, for the millions of Kenyans who currently live without electricity, is more cost effective than through any of the other alternatives.

For instance, Hydropower, is today the most successful form of renewable energy. We currently have an estimated 6,000MW of hydro power potential in our nation. Out of this, only 820 MW of this has been developed. The low-cost/low-impact small hydro opportunities is estimated at 3,000MW, out of this only 25MW has been developed.

• That alone is a compelling argument. Added to that – renewable energy is healthier, promotes more equitable growth and development, and protects the environment. I accept that it’s one thing to say what is possible, and entirely another to make it happen.
• Energy infrastructure is expensive. It needs finance, and finely-tuned policies to attract investors. A few years ago, we might have concluded the challenges were too great and the barriers too high.

But something has changed.

• Prices in renewable energy have fallen, dramatically. Indeed the cost of Solar PV has fallen by 80% since 2008, while efficiencies for this technology has continued to increase.

Over the past two to three years, governments and businesses have done the math, and concluded that Renewable Energy is a sound investment.

They are putting their money where their mouth is.