The adoption of clean energy such as solar and wind in the country has won the admiration of experts.
Kenya is trailblazing on wind and solar uptake, a move the global community is adopting with the aim of addressing three planetary crises of pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss.
A report launched on Wednesday by energy think-tank, Ember, shows that Kenya is doing well in the adoption of both solar and wind energy, which are in abundance.
Wind and solar reached 12 per cent of global electricity in 2022, up from 10 per cent in 2021.
Across the African continent, Namibia (25%), Morocco (17%) and Kenya (16%) are countries leading the way.
“In this decisive decade for the climate, it is the beginning of the end of the fossil age,” lead author and Ember’s senior electricity analyst Małgorzata Wiatros-Motyka said.
“We are entering the clean power era.”
Wiatros-Motyka said the stage is set for wind and solar to achieve a meteoric rise to the top.
"Clean electricity will reshape the global economy, from transport to industry and beyond. A new era of falling fossil emissions means the coal power phasedown will happen, and the end of gas power is now within sight. Change is coming fast."
Wiatros-Motyka said, however, it all depends on the actions taken now by governments, businesses and citizens to put the world on a pathway to clean power by 2040.
Damilola Ogunbiyi said global progress, while encouraging, does not reveal the growing disparity in renewable energy adoption, which is tipped disproportionately in favour of developed countries and emerging economies in Asia.
Ogunbiyi is the CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Sustainable Energy for All, and co-chair of UN-Energy.
She said much more needs to be done to ensure that developing countries are not left behind and locked into high carbon futures.
“Furthermore, coal power remained the single largest source of electricity worldwide, producing 36 per cent of global electricity in 2022, which means that the power sector remains off-track in meeting net zero targets globally by mid-century, the deployment of wind and solar needs to be massively and urgently accelerated," Ogunbiyi said.
The existing highland and mountainous areas, the Rift Valley and other geographical features have combined to create ideal conditions for the high wind speeds required for commercial wind energy generation.
The Kenya Renewable Energy Association indicates high wind speeds of above 9m/s at 50m high in the northwest while areas along the Indian Ocean average above 5m/s at 50m high.
The windiest places are the edges of the Rift Valley, Marsabit and Turkana districts.
Kenya’s vast unexploited wind energy resource can fulfil power requirements for the whole country.
The data reveals that over 60 countries now generate more than 10 per cent of their electricity from wind and solar.
The fourth annual Global Electricity Review from Ember presents electricity data from 2022 across 78 countries, representing 93 per cent of global electricity demand.
The open data and indepth analysis provide the first accurate picture of the global electricity transition in 2022.
Solar was the fastest-growing source of global electricity for the 18th year in a row, rising by 24 per cent year-on-year and adding enough electricity to power all of South Africa.
Wind generation increased by 17 per cent in 2022, enough to power almost all of the UK.
Twenty African nations generate more than half of their electricity from renewables, with hydro playing a key role.
However, the African region as a whole has just five per cent of its electricity from wind and solar.
Less than one per cent of the increase in global wind and solar generation in 2022 was in African countries.
The rapid growth seen in some African countries reveals the enormous potential for wind, solar and other renewable technologies.
For example, with backing from the President, Namibia has seen solar power quadruple in just four years. It increased from six per cent in 2017 (0.1 TWh) to 24 per cent in 2021 (0.4 TWh), making it the African country with the highest share of solar power.
Kenya has also continued to push for more clean energy despite achieving high renewable generation from hydro (30%) and geothermal (45%) in 2017.
As a result, in 2022, renewables delivered 90 per cent of Kenya’s electricity.
Wind power reached 14 per cent of Kenya’s electricity in 2022 (1.7 TWh), up from just 0.6 per cent in 2017 (0.1 TWh), with the development of Africa’s largest wind project, backed by international financing.
The report provides lessons from other economies worldwide.
For example, it highlights China’s ‘Whole-County Rooftop Solar’ which sees a systematic approach for deploying solar region-by-region across government buildings, schools and hospitals.
However, the report also cautions against some of the stop-start onshore wind policies in Germany, the UK and Spain which have led to non-uniform growth in wind power, below the potential.
Global gas power generation fell in 2022 (-0.2%)–for the second time in three years–in the wake of high gas prices globally.
Only 31 GW of new gas power plants were built in 2022, the lowest in 18 years.
The sharp rise in solar and wind uptake has limited the increase in global coal generation, which rose by 1.1 per cent.
Overall, that still meant that global power sector emissions increased by 1.3 per cent in 2022, reaching an all-time high.
The report forecasts that last year may have been the ‘peak’ of electricity emissions and the final year of fossil power growth, with clean power meeting all demand growth in 2023.
As a result, there would be a small fall in fossil generation (-0.3%) in 2023, with larger falls in subsequent years as wind and solar deployment accelerate.
According to modelling by the International Energy Agency, the electricity sector needs to move from being the highest emitting sector to being the first sector to reach net zero by 2040 in order to achieve economy-wide net zero by 2050.
This would mean wind and solar reaching 41 per cent of global electricity by 2030, compared to 12 per cent in 2022.