As Kenya goes heavy on renewable energy sources, rain is\nturning out to be a curse and blessing at once for the country\u2019s green\ngeneration mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The country\u2019s generation mix is currently 93 percent\ngreen, comprising geothermal, hydropower, wind and solar. The march to hitting\nthe 100 percent sweet spot is on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Save for geothermal power, other renewable sources that\nKenya has in its power basket are somehow dependent on weather conditions, more\nso rainfall, its availability or lack thereof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While hydropower production peaks during periods of heavy\ndownpour as dams fill up, solar parks produce less electricity on rainy, cloudy\ndays. Rain clouds block sunlight radiation, hurting power generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And depending on the rain type, wind speeds can either slow\ndown or pick up whenever it rains in the highlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt times when it rains in the highlands, wind speeds\nflowing through Turkana wind farm lose intensity and generation drops,\u201d said\nRizwan Fazal, a director at Lake Turkana Wind Power Ltd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kenya in September 2018 switched on the 310MW Turkana\nwind farm in Marsabit, the largest wind plant in Africa. A month later the\ncountry again commissioned 55MW Garissa solar park \u2013 the largest in East\nAfrica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the flipside, rain water is considered beneficial to\nsolar panels and wind blades as it washes clean their surface, removing dust\nand other debris and improving their operational efficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And since rain affects hydropower, wind and solar power\ndifferently, the net result is some semblance of stability in consumer power\nbills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wind and solar farms are serving as cheaper\nalternatives to expensive diesel generated electricity whenever hydropower\ngeneration drops during bouts of drought. At the same time, hydropower kicks in\nfull swing during rainy seasons, mitigating the drops in solar and wind power\nproduction, leaving power bills in a relatively neutral position. Hydropower stations\nalso serve as spinning reserve in the sense that they can be ramped up and down\nin real-time to match fluctuations in intermittent sources like wind and solar,\nacting as national grid stabilisers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Kenya goes heavy on renewable energy sources, rain is turning out to be a curse and blessing at once for the country\u2019s green generation mix. The country\u2019s generation mix…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[809,1165,1254,1548],"class_list":["post-7714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-responsibility","tag-hydropower","tag-rainfall","tag-solar-power","tag-wind-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}