The Optimal Sources of energy in Kenya

Abstract

The electricity industry has an important role in developing a sustainable energy system, both regarding the use of electricity to improve environmental performance in society thus contributing to a better livingstandard and social life and to reduce the environmental impacts from the electricity industry own activities.The industry contributes significantly to the worlds total green house gas emissions and has a significantimpact on other environmental aspects, such as exploitation of fuel resources, emissions to air, generationof waste and use of landscape. Approximately 80% of the Kenyan population lives in rural areas whereelectricity access rate is merely 4%, mainly due to the slow rate of installation caused by the high costs ofextending the existing grid to rural areas. It is therefore imperative that a comparative study be carried outto establish the optimum power system to supply the rural areas in Kenya given the financial constraintswithin many rural households while considering the environmental external costs due to each method. Thefollowing scenarios are considered for this study: (i) Mini grid powered by Green Distributed GenerationTechnologies, (ii) Mini grid powered by fossil fired plants, (iii) Extension of the existing grid