Africa\nSustainability Matters.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nGOGLA is a network of about 180 organisations\ninvolved in off-grid solar solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nglobal off-grid solar market, which is only 10 years old, stands at $1.75\nbillion (Sh175 billion) per year, and lighting up 420 million households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China, the epicenter of the flu-like coronavirus, has\nthrown a blanket lockdown on its major cities and quarantined millions of\nfamilies, cooling activity and shaking global supply chains. Death toll is in\nexcess of 3,000, mostly in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Known as the world\u2019s factory, China has eventually\nsneezed and the rest of the world has caught a cold, literally and\nfiguratively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like the rest of Africa, Kenya\u2019s\nsolar market gets over 90 percent of panels and components from China,\naccording to Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nlist of top 12 largest suppliers of solar panels to Kenya comprises only\nChinese companies. They include JinkoSolar (the world\u2019s largest solar panel\nmanufacturer), Omni Voltaic, Trina, Morning Star, Hanwha, D.Light and Power\nmaster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nAsian giant equally leads the pack in Kenyan supply of solar batteries,\ninverters, along with charge controllers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Solinc\nEast Africa is the only maker of solar panels in Kenya. The company assembles\nphotovoltaic (PV) modules of 5, 10, 20 80, 150 and 250Wp (watt peak) at its\nNaivasha plant. Its biggest customer is Nairobi-based solar company M-Kopa.\nEven then, the Kenya-made panels only account for a tiny share of the local\nmarket with Chinese suppliers hogging the pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
British\nsolar firm Azuri Technologies, which supplies home solar kits to Kenyan\nvillages, said its supply line hasn\u2019t been affected because its panels are\nmanufactured in Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re\nnot affected in short term and have contingency plans mainly because unlike our\ncompetitors, we manufacture in Malaysia and not China,\u201d Azuri East Africa\ngeneral manager Snehar Shah said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nfirm was founded in the University of Cambridge and is piloting\ninternet-enabled home solar kits targeting off-grid households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides\npanels, Kenya\u2019s solar market relies heavily on imported batteries from China.\nKenya currently has only one manufacturing plant for solar batteries belonging\nto Associated Battery Manufacturers (ABM), maker of Chloride Exide batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Established\nin 1963, the ABM is a subsidiary of British company Chloride Group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nfirm makes both solar and automobile (lead acid) batteries in the Nairobi\nfactory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kenya\nhas in recent years witnessed a pickup in solar business, especially among\nrural customers cut off from the national grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nEast African country\u2019s power\nconnectivity rate stands at 75 percent with the remaining quarter of the\npopulation set to access electricity through a combination of grid connections,\nmini grids and standalone solar kits. Kenya has set an ambitious target of\nachieving universal power access by 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nKenya, solar batteries are predominantly small-scale and deployed in off-grid\nareas to store energy from small solar panels for nighttime use by mostly\nlow-income households. But the emergence of solar-powered mini grids serving\nclustered communities has equally created need for backup batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At\nthe moment, the country has no utility scale battery for the national power\ngrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China,\nthe world\u2019s second largest economy, has recently emerged a global leader in\nrenewables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo\ncountry has put itself in a better position to become the world\u2019s renewable\nenergy superpower than China. In aggregate, it is now the world\u2019s largest\nproducer, exporter and installer of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and\nelectric vehicles, placing it at the forefront of the global energy\ntransition,\u201d the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) said way before\nthe coronavirus outbreak, scientifically referred to as Covid-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChina\u2019s concerted efforts to research, develop and invest in renewable energy and clean transport offer its industry the opportunity to overtake US and European companies, which have been dominant in sectors such as cars and energy machinery. This will give China a comparative advantage in trade and lend impetus to the country\u2019s economic growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read also<\/strong>: 19-Year Old Conservationist Out To Save Kenya\u2019s Wildlife<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Supply of home solar systems is headed for a disruption as the deadly coronavirus takes a toll on China \u2013 the world\u2019s largest manufacturer of panels. The Global Off-Grid Lighting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8442,"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":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8441","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=8441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}