In 2013, a report released by environment lobby group Green Africa Foundation showed that Kenya was losing forest cover due to increased charcoal production and land clearing.
“Charcoal production in some areas is largely indiscriminate,” John Kioli, Executive Director - Green Africa Foundation told the press.
Kioli and other lobbyists have maintained that there is need to find alternative sources of energy and solar energy is primary among solutions that have been proposed.
According to Radhika Thakkar, Global Vice President of Business Development at Greenlight Planet, there has to be a more sustainable way of energy utilisation and use.
“This will be important especially in Africa where majority are not connected to the national electricity grid,” she said.
Currently, wood and related biomass accounts for 68 per cent of total energy consumption in Kenya.
Petroleum use is at 22 per cent, electricity at nine per cent while the sun and all other forms of energy account for one per cent.
Radhika says converting energy from the sun into forms that can run machines and power homes, will in the long run be sustainable hence good for the economy.
“A family that cannot afford kerosene but has a solar lamp that is rechargeable every day using just the sun will find it easy handling other responsibilities. This will also, in the long run, be good for the environment,” she said
Kerosene, although readily available and subsidised by the Government, is not only dangerous to one’s health but its fuel does not effectively provide light for a home.
According to the World Health Organisation, nearly three billion people in the world cook and heat their homes using open fires and simple stoves burning biomass and coal. Out of these, four million die prematurely from illnesses attributable to the household’s air pollution from cooking with solid fuels. Further, 50 per cent of pneumonia deaths among children under five are caused by soot inhaled from household air pollution.
Radhika therefore believes fostering use of solar technologies within Kenyan homes will have far reaching positive outcomes.
The company behind Sun King solar lamps, is now aggressively reaching out to ensure homes across the country have access to these environmentally friendly lamps.
