Budget allocation to boost green technologies

By Macharia Kamau

In a bid to encourage uptake of green energy technologies, Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta has scrapped duty that local manufacturers pay when importing raw materials for the manufacture of solar panels.

The minister said green cars that are operated on rechargeable batteries rather than fossil fuels would be duty exempt.

"To encourage local manufacturing, I propose to grant duty remission on inputs for the production of solar panels," he said in his budget ministerial statement.

"We need to encourage usage of environmentally friendly vehicles to reduce carbon emissions and noise pollution. In this regard, battery operated vehicles will be duty exempt."

Hydro sources

Kenya currently relies heavily on hydro sources for electricity, which have been unreliable especially during prolonged dry spells.

To bridge the supply gap created by low water levels in power generating dams during dry seasons, Kenya has turned to diesel-powered thermal generation that usually sees a significant surge in consumer power bills.

Kenya’s over reliance on hydropower generation has been despite a huge potential for production of electricity using other sources especially wind, solar and geothermal.

The country expects to make strides in the geothermal and wind electricity generation.