Sanitation entrepreneurs generating biogas in Kenya can now sell energy to the national grid following the revision of pricing policy by the Energy Regulatory Authority (ERA).
The decision is expected to attract more business people in the biogas sector including those responding to the sanitation crises in some urban centers by using human waste to generate biogas. According to ERA‘s new pricing policy suppliers of solar power and biogas will make increased income by supplying to the national grid.
Most rural and peri urban towns
have more than their supply of human waste which can generate biogas. Most of the human waste is discarded in pit
latrines, yet its value chain can be expanded to include fuel as well as
fertilizer and in the process create employment for technicians, attendants,
farmers, vendors etc. Human waste for
biogas and ultimately fertilizer can be adopted by other countries.
Suppliers of solar
power will earn Ksh 10.25 ($0.12) per kilowatt while those supplying biogas
will earn Ksh 9.39 ($0.11) from Ksh 6.8 ($0.08). In rural and peri urban areas
where sewage and piping systems are absent though a challenge presents an
opportunity to create business and employment opportunities for the burgeoning
unemployed populations. |
| Biogas tank; courtesy Living Mandala |
Kenya’s main source of
energy is Hydro-electricity at 48 per cent, which suffers interruption during
drought. While thermal generates 37 per cent, geothermal generates 12.4 percent,
wind 0.3 per cent, co-generation 2.4 percent. According to Ministry of Information, Kenya currently
generates 1350MW of electricity and needs to generate 15000MW in the next 20
years if it is to realize the Vision 2030. Vision 2030 is Kenya’s economic blue
print that addresses, economic, social and political pillars aimed at
transforming Kenya to a newly industrializing middle income country providing
high quality life to all its citizens in a clean and secure environment as well
as 10 per cent economic growth per annum.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data shows that all consumer categories recorded an increased demand in electricity with domestic, commercial and industrial, and rural electrification increasing by 10.8, 7.6 and 3.5% respectively. With a growing rise in population and development, the government of Kenya is seeking ways to generate more renewable energy.
A comprehensive study
and analysis on Energy Consumption patterns in Kenya by the Kenya Institute for Public
Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) for ERA while stating the” the future of
energy is in Green energy” showed that about 70% of the consumers use biomass
while 30% use other fuels.
Human waste is already being used in different parts of Kenya to generate energy. In the sprawling Kibera’s Katwekera village already a radical paradigm shift has taken place. The area hitherto known for its flying toilets (where individuals relieved themselves in their houses in a polythene paper and at an opportune time throw it away) in one of the narrow streets, rooftops or rivers now has a biogas center which provides sanitation services as well as provide energy to cook.
There are several
biogas centers in Nairobi’s informal area where bio-digesters generate power
from human waste. Residents pay Ksh 1 or
($ 0.01162) to use the toilets and Ksh 2 ($0.02) to shower and pay Ksh 10
($0.12) to cook food for the day which would usually cost nearly 20 times what
they are charged when they cook at the biogas centers Some
of the bio -centers earn Ksh 1500 or ($17.45) which pays salaries for those
employed at the center. (See Citizen T.V past coverage) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m1nr2v5S8o
Jomo Kenyatta University College of
Agriculture and Technology
(JKUCAT) installed its own biogas digesters to serve its 5,000 student
population. Some private sector companies have not been left behind, at
Farmer’s Choice meat processing plant at Kamiti Estate in Nairobi, biogas
flames are replacing kerosene, furnace oil and firewood.
t the Meru GK Prison in Meru County, human
waste from an estimated 1,200 inmates and 300 staff members is being used to
generate enough biogas to power the prison’s kitchen and those of staff
members.Today, thousands of rural households in Kenya plan to or have already
installed biogas plants due to the availability of livestock and kitchen waste.
The Government
of Kenya is continuing to promote biogas and seeks to see more than 8,000 bio digesters
in different parts of Nairobi and thousands of other in the rural areas.According to Kenya biogas feasibility study Promoting Biogas Systems in Kenya;A feasibility study in October 2007, Mr. Tim Hutchinson built the first biogas digester in Kenya in 1957. This provided all of the gas and fertiliser that his coffee farm needed. He found the effluent (or “sludge”) an excellent fertiliser and that its application to his coffee trees greatly improved productivity. In 1958, he started constructing biogas digesters commercially, marketing the effluent as the main product with biogas as a useful by-product.
Between 1960
and 1986, Hutchinson’s company (called Tunnel Engineering Ltd.) sold more than
130 small biogas units and 30 larger units all over the country. Hutchinson
biogas digesters (some still working after fifty years) can be found in various
parts of Kenya. Despite the great potential biogas offers hindrances to
adoption of biogas include high cost of installing the systems, lack of
capacity to install high volumes of biogas, systems failure, inadequate lack of
installation support and poor management and maintenance, inadequate technology
or lack of technology awareness, scarce or fragmented promotion .
One UN report
has commented that sanitation should be made as attractive as mobile phones.
World Trade Organisation says toilets should be revolutionized to become as
attractive as mobile phones. What is it
about mobile phones and in Kenya Mobile banking (M-pesa) that sanitation can
borrow as sanitation services at
different levels are used by the more than 40 million Kenyans? Safaricom’s m-pesa currently has some 17
million subscribers, with an estimated reach of 38 per cent of the adult
population with 45,540 agents countrywide. Some of the Mpesa lines belong to
various institutions, i.e companies, schools, churches etc. What do
you think are the parallels between toilets and mobile phones that can enable
greater investment by communities in sanitation services especially value added
toilets!