Browsing by Author "Njogu, M."

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Rural Electrification using off-grid Solar PV powered Energy Kiosks
    (Ostbayerisches Technologie-Transfer-Institute.V. (OTTI), ) Da Silva, Izael; Da Silva, I. P; Njuguna, P. M; Njogu, M.
    Access to electricity in rural Kenya and other developing African countries is low because historically power utilities employ a centralized grid system of electrification that is expensive to expand and would take decades to reach the majority in these areas thus opening opportunity to decentralized solutions. An off grid solar PV powered Energy Kiosk is one of the possible models of electrification which makes commercially sense in the task of bringing energy to isolated communities. Using data and experience from a pilot energy kiosk installed in Kenya, this paper shows how this facility ably electrifies isolated rural communities and points out how it could be replicated in the rest of developing Africa. Using PV which is a proved technology, the target is to avail electricity for basic domestic use and enterprises in rural communities.
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    The impact of the SERC based solar PV outreach training program in Kenya
    (Strathmore Energy Research Center, 2016-06-23) Silva, I. P.; Ronoh, G.; Nalubega, T.; Njogu, M.; Da Silva, Izael
    In this paper it is described how Strathmore Energy Research Centre developed an outreach project funded by USAID, National Science Foundation (NSF) to empower technical institutions to offer solar courses hence creating a pool of qualified technicians spread throughout the geography of the country. Presently the situation is that Kenya has around 1000 solar technicians working in the market with no formal solar PV training or accreditation. The National Industrial Training Authority NITA, which regulates nonacademic skills or craft based training, was helped by this project to develop a PV solar curriculum at three levels (T1/T2/T3) which empowers from craft level technicians to engineers to deal with design, installation and maintenance of PV systems from solar lantern up to utility size level. ERC, the Energy Regulatory Commission for Kenya has supported the initiative as technicians once trained can be accredited by and thus further strength the industry. By June 2016, which is the end of the program, Kenya is to have 1800 accredited technical personnel near almost every major town in the country. The paper describes the positive and negative aspects of this venture.
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    Using renewable energy in a sustainable and holistic manner as a tool to eradicate rural poverty in Africa
    Da Silva, Izael; Da Silva, I. P.; Vendeirinho, V.; Njuguna, P. M; Njogu, M.
    Rural poverty in developing countries is a social problem that is well recognized and causes concern globally. The UN recently met to review the MDG's and acknowledge that there was limited progress to date; a looming target date have highlighted the difficulty in addressing development issues on the ground where people are trying to survive, often on as little as $2 per day or less. This paper demonstrates the model of rural village energy services centres by using solar energy to provide solution to most of the problems of a typical African rural village. This stand alone system provides energy services solution leveraging sustainable resources in a holistic, community-integrated fashion to improve health, information, communication, education and preserving the environment while it kick-starts micro-economies in rural villages. It intends to increase productivity and ultimately eradicate poverty. This solution is still in a prototype stage but has its special interest because it hopes to provide clean water and biogas apart from the solar generated electricity. Through the implementation of community energy services, stand alone decentralised solutions intend to divert rural current expenditure on kerosene, offering significant reductions in carbon emissions, environmental damage and respiratory-illness related deaths which were recently estimated at 1.6M per annum worldwide as per a World Bank report. This corresponding increase in energy efficiency drives an increase in productivity and thus a step closer to the realization of the MDGs as has been documented in various case studies (Annual Report 2008 (. (2008). Renewable Energy Services for Developing Countries - In Support of the Millennium Development Goals) [8]. This paper covers the technology implementation starting from demand until it reaches the level of success which then makes it suitable for replication.