Increasing awareness of Renewable Energy Technologies and their Applications in Kajiado County

ALIN with support from the Hivos Green and Inclusive Energy Programme implemented a Project dubbed “Increasing awareness of renewable energy technologies and their applications in Kajiado County.” The Project developed the Kajiado County Renewable Energy Atlas, which provides the Kajiado County Government and others stakeholders with high quality, publicly available data on renewable energy resources and also acts as a catalyst to trigger planning and policy development and help attract investors in the renewable energy markets in Kajiado County. The Atlas data is essential for the transition to a clean energy economy that prioritizes local resources, improves resilience and promotes energy independence.

Furthermore, the Atlas also supports the implementation of the Energy Act, 2019 which requires both the National and County Government to collect and maintain energy data, to undertake feasibility studies, and to avail data to developers of energy resources and infrastructure. The Atlas contains maps of borehole distribution in the county, existing and potential solar energy sites in the county, existing and potential wind energy sites (with data about the wind speeds in different parts of the county), existing and potential geothermal energy sites (with data about the geological makeup of different parts of the county), existing and potential hydropower sites, as well as existing and potential biomass sites.

The Atlas is designed as a resource for use by those interested in furthering the production of electricity, heat and fuels from solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and biomass in the county. These include the public, policymakers, advocates, landowners, developers, utility companies and prospectors. Understanding the location and potential of renewable energy resources is, therefore, a crucial pre-requisite to their utilization, and the scale-up of clean and secure sources of electricity generation. A resource map is thus important to help county governments to better coordinate the development of different renewable energy resources. ALIN also organized 7 monthly Non-State Actors Learning and Consultative Forums in Kajiado County.

The monthly forums usually brought together 30 NSAs working on energy access and advocacy on renewable energy to share opportunities, best practices, and experiences and to identify opportunities for collaborative work.  The forums helped to strengthen coordination, learning and experience sharing amongst NSAs working on energy access and advocacy on renewable energy.  They also facilitated institutional learning, common problem solving, capacity building and networking in the NSA space to promote the adoption of renewable energy in Kajiado County.