SkyPower doubles solar power efforts in Kenya

Date

07 October 2015

NEW YORK: SkyPower, the world’s leading company in mass development of utility-scale solar photovoltaic energy projects, has announced it will double its investment in Kenya up to US$4.4 billion, also doubling the amount of electricity generated to 2 Gigawatts.

The news comes alongside a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency noting that the African continent could generate almost a quarter of its energy needs with renewable energy by 2030.

“Access to energy is critical,” says Kerry Adler, President and CEO of SkyPower, in our latest exclusive Climate TV interview. “If you don’t have electricity, you really don’t have access to energy – and you can’t really grow an economy.”

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“Our perspective at SkyPower is that the fundamental way to address poverty is by providing energy. The beautiful part of our solar energy is you don’t have to wait years to upgrade grids and spend billions of dollars. You slap a solar panel on the top of a rooftop, and a village can have solar energy translating into cooking, clean water, the ability to read at night.”

In Kenya, the government has set forward its ‘Vision 2030’ to bring electricity access to all in the country by 2030. Solar power can transform the lives of millions who today do not have access to electricity, living in remote – and often poor – regions.

ECONOMIC BARRIER

While the technology to fill this gap is already present, there is often an economic barrier holding it back: the average price for a solar kit is US$100, a figure too high for many people who already struggle to find the resources for food or school fees.

To address this issue and extend the benefits of solar power to more people in Kenya, SkyPower has donated two million home solar kits, with 3,600 street lamps already put in place, and will deploy over 400,000 kits per year until 2020. In addition, the company is building a ‘genius laboratory’  – a research centre in collaboration with centres in North America to assist Kenya in developing its own clean technology.

SOLAR SOLUTIONS

Access to affordable, clean energy sources is a central driver of sustainable development, and with it comes providing a basic essential in life to those who can’t afford it. Replicable solutions like The Climate Group’s ‘Bijli – Clean Energy for All’ project in India is one seeking to address just that in providing clean energy access to over 60,000 people.

Renewable energy expansion continues to displace dirty forms of energy production with affordable, low carbon energy. And solar, the fastest growing source of renewable energy, is instrumental in the shift.

At Climate Week NYC’s Signature Event, Kerry Adler spoke about solar energy’s potential in alleviating poverty and corruption and our duty to act on accelerating its widescale deployment, stating: “1.3 billion people in this world dread twilight, because when twilight comes, that is the end of their day.”

“If you have the chance to do something different for this world; you have the talent, you have the brains, you have the team, and access to capital, then you must use that to make families’ lives better.”

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SkyPower doubles solar power efforts in Kenya