Jul 22 2010
The Kenyan government is planning to implement a law to make installation of solar heaters binding at residential houses and public institutions such as hospitals and schools.
The new Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) guidelines made it mandatory for all the new buildings under construction in urban areas to include solar water heaters in the construction. This legislation is aimed at introducing alternative sources of energy and to reduce the consumption of electrical energy for water heating purposes.
NSSF Nyayo estate
According to a recent estimation by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) of Kenya the energy spent on water heating alone constitutes nearly 25% of the total energy consumed by individual houses. During last year the consumers of this segment consumed around1254 Ghw of power or roughly 24% of the total power consumption of 5,155 Ghw. An estimated 312 Ghw of power is expected to be saved by the implementation of the proposed legislation.
Currently Kenya produces around 1480 MW of power inclusive of temporary emergency power supply of 290 MW and meeting the peak demand of 1050 MW thus having a reserve margin of only 4.5%. More over the cost of producing electricity has almost doubled during the past one year thus seeking urgent initiatives from the government to rein in the cost and heighten the power supply.
According to a World Bank report, recurrent power shortages and the steep prices have corroded around 1.5% of the total Kenyan GDP and also avert fresh investments to improve the economy.
The announcement of new regulations has received mixed reactions from those involved in real estate and building industry. They expect a new triggering in the construction prices and escalation in the cost of new homes which may ultimately result in increased rent.
Strict and full implementation of the proposed solar heating rules and other clean energy rules is expected to increase the image of Kenya as a clean energy economy, a name to reckon with which most of the countries are aspiring.