Farmers in Kieni receive solar powered boreholes

Ronoh said REDAVIA’s solar power solution gives them the opportunity to reaffirm their commitment as a responsible corporate citizen.

The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) will now manage the 54.6 megawatts (MW) Garissa solar power plant.

“They will save us at least $30,000 (Sh3 million) every month in transport costs alone,” Mr Rao said.

The Rural Electrification Authority (REA) is planning to establish a 60KW (KiloWatt) solar power plant in Wajir.

Vision 2030 identifies energy as one of the infrastructure enablers that has the potential to increase productivity, alleviate poverty, accelerate employment creation and improve rural-urban balance.

Technology has had a tremendous impact on our daily lives, especially in the workplace. We are now able to store and access information and various programmes over the Internet instead of going through a computer hard drive.

Projects can be installed in just a few weeks, whereas it takes years to build coal and nuclear power stations.

As motorcycle taxi operators wait for passengers in Urudi village in Kisumu County lounge on their various machines, Alfred Omondi’s plug-in electric scooter stands out from the crowd.

World Bank reports power is Africa’s largest infrastructure challenge. This report indicates that the 48 Sub-Saharan African countries, with about 800 million inhabitants, generate power equivalent to that generated in Spain, which has a population of 45 million.

For many homeowners, energy is a problem that cannot be wished away especially when less than 20 per cent of Kenyan households are connected to the national power grid.

When they were told they would bring light to their communities, they laughed it off. How could they achieve a feat that even the local MP had not been able to, they reasoned.

The solar panels were installed by the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC) in conjunction with the county government.