Poor funding stands in firms’ way of producing cheap power

www.nation.co.ke
September 29 2010

Lack of financing for new technologies that are energy-efficient is hindering local industries from adopting cleaner manufacturing processes, an official has said. The Ministry of Industrialisation says that despite the world moving to environmentally friendly practices, most local companies are still stuck with machinery that use a lot of energy. They also continue to emit a lot of carbon into the atmosphere, making local products unattractive to other markets. "We are aware that considerable untapped potential exists for decreasing wasteful use of energy, which is estimated to be nearly 27%, as well as deploying more sustainable energy among our industries", said permanent secretary in the ministry, Dr Karanja Kibicho.

Kenya has the potential to tap into several forms of renewable energy sources such as solar and geothermal, but is yet to develop them, instead depending heavily on unreliable hydroelectricity. The government has, however, been working towards growing green energy sources in efforts to save production cost, preserve the environment and wean the country from hydro sources. Power producer KenGen, which has been operating two small pilot units of wind power, is now set to play a major role as the country embarks on an ambitious journey to go green.

Hallmark of winning
"As we move into the future, efficiency and effectiveness will be the hallmark of winning enterprises as these are the key drivers to competitiveness", Mr Kibicho said. He spoke yesterday during the opening of a workshop organised by the Kenya National Cleaner Production Centre to discuss resource-smart techniques. The event targeted the sugar, tea and textiles production sectors, whose many factories across the country are yet to adopt energy efficient means of production.