Friends School Kamusinga/Wikipedia
From schoolrooms to fish markets and small farms, solar power is helping Kenyans cut energy costs, keep food fresh, and irrigate crops where grid electricity is limited or unreliable.
Driven by demand for affordable, dependable power, the shift has made Kenya a major market for off-grid solar, accounting for [pdf] nearly three-quarters of solar home system sales in East Africa by 2023.
At Friends School Kamusinga, a boarding school more than 400 kilometres from Nairobi, a whopping 4.3-million shilling annual power bill in 2024, equal to about C$47,000, was a wake-up call that something had to change.
“Over the years, we had witnessed an increase in electricity bills, but at this point, we knew that if we didn’t find an alternative fast, then we would be forced to forego other critical school needs in order to meet these energy costs,” Chief Principal Paul Weloba told The Energy Mix.
The Kenyan government gives schools a fixed per-student allocation for water and electricity, but energy costs remain a burden on school balance sheets, leading management to tap parents for additional financial support.
“The impact of schools having limited, expensive electricity was reported to result in reduced educational outcomes, increased financial burden for parents, poor staff retention, and ultimately reduced school attendance,” researchers wrote in a 2023 peer-reviewed study.
Reliability is also a problem, Weloba said. During rainy seasons, the school had to find backup power amid frequent blackouts, especially at night.
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Against this backdrop, the school turned to the sun. In February 2025, using a green loan from a local bank, the school set up a solar photovoltaic system costing 12 million shillings, around C$132,000.
The hybrid solar PV system combines solar panels with battery storage and another power system—either the national grid or a backup generator, solar engineer Paul Mabonga, managing director at Sentimental Energy, told The Mix. “This generates electricity during the day, stores excess in batteries, and ensures continuous power even at night or during extended cloudy periods.”
At the school, during the day, solar panels power classrooms and charge batteries. At night, or when solar generation is low, the system taps into stored energy, or to the grid and generator.
“This reduces reliance on diesel and unstable grid supply, enabling smoother school operations,” Mabonga said.
Though the upfront payment and the monthly payments seem substantial, the savings are greater still, with a nearly 80% cut in energy costs, Weloba said.
“Now we pay about 200,000 shillings (around C$2,200), for the loan per month, which is still lower than what we had previously been paying for electricity.”
The savings have been redirected toward infrastructure and other school initiatives.
Households and small businesses are also adopting off-grid solar. At Kakuma Market in Turkana County, where grid access is limited, 29-year-old fish retailer Josephine Erika can keep up to 50 kilograms of stock fresh in a solar-powered refrigerator. She acquired it in January, 2025, by partnering with a solar energy company.
“Around Lake Turkana, fishers often had to sell quickly at low prices or dry the fish because fresh fish could not be preserved reliably,” Kimani Gichuche, director at Adili Solar Hubs Limited, told The Mix.
With access to solar refrigeration, they’ve been able to extend the shelf life of fish, improving product quality,and reducing the pressure to sell immediately.
In Kiambu County, north of Nairobi, organic farmer Esther Wariara uses a solar-powered water pump to irrigate her crops, and a solar-powered dryer to preserve and dry different crops, including bananas and cassava. She told The Mix that before she invested in solar solutions, the high energy cost of using grid electricity ate into her returns.
By June, 2025, captive solar PV capacity—electricity generated primarily for customer’s own use—had increased to 300.5 megawatts, according to the agency responsible for regulating the energy sector, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA). Captive solar made up 60% of Kenya’s installed solar capacity, showing continued growth in privately-installed solar systems at institutions, businesses, and industries.
EPRA Acting Director General Joseph Oketch told The Mix that rooftop solar plays a key role in lowering electricity costs for Kenyans.
The declining costs of solar technologies are a significant factor driving adoption in Kenya, but experts say supportive government policies, regulatory frameworks, and energy sector initiatives have also played a large role in supporting this growth.
Kenya stands among the leaders in renewables policy—ranking first in Africa for sustainable energy policy, with a score of 72%, followed by Tunisia at 69%, found the 2023 Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) report.
EPRA developed and is implementing regulations aimed at encouraging renewable energy adoption, including PV rules that provide for licencing of all players in the value chain, with the aim of enforcing the quality of equipment and installations.
Net-metering regulations and solar water heating regulations provide for the banking of excess renewable generation through the grid, encourage renewables adoption, and enforce standards, Oketch said.
Yet experts don’t see solar as a silver bullet for Kenya’s energy challenges.
“Affordability remains a hurdle as solar solutions come with high upfront costs, and sometimes users fall behind in payment, leading to disconnection,” Mabonga said.
Skilled maintenance personnel are also scarce, especially in rural areas. “Quality and maintenance issues exist—especially for the consumer devices—and [there are] limited productive uses of the energy, since most of these systems are too small for energy-intensive activities,” Oketch said.
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Friends School Kamusinga/Wikipedia
From schoolrooms to fish markets and small farms, solar power is helping Kenyans cut energy costs, keep food fresh, and irrigate crops where grid electricity is limited or unreliable.
Driven by demand for affordable, dependable power, the shift has made Kenya a major market for off-grid solar, accounting for [pdf] nearly three-quarters of solar home system sales in East Africa by 2023.
At Friends School Kamusinga, a boarding school more than 400 kilometres from Nairobi, a whopping 4.3-million shilling annual power bill in 2024, equal to about C$47,000, was a wake-up call that something had to change.
“Over the years, we had witnessed an increase in electricity bills, but at this point, we knew that if we didn’t find an alternative fast, then we would be forced to forego other critical school needs in order to meet these energy costs,” Chief Principal Paul Weloba told The Energy Mix.
The Kenyan government gives schools a fixed per-student allocation for water and electricity, but energy costs remain a burden on school balance sheets, leading management to tap parents for additional financial support.
“The impact of schools having limited, expensive electricity was reported to result in reduced educational outcomes, increased financial burden for parents, poor staff retention, and ultimately reduced school attendance,” researchers wrote in a 2023 peer-reviewed study.
Reliability is also a problem, Weloba said. During rainy seasons, the school had to find backup power amid frequent blackouts, especially at night.
View our latest digests
Against this backdrop, the school turned to the sun. In February 2025, using a green loan from a local bank, the school set up a solar photovoltaic system costing 12 million shillings, around C$132,000.
The hybrid solar PV system combines solar panels with battery storage and another power system—either the national grid or a backup generator, solar engineer Paul Mabonga, managing director at Sentimental Energy, told The Mix. “This generates electricity during the day, stores excess in batteries, and ensures continuous power even at night or during extended cloudy periods.”
At the school, during the day, solar panels power classrooms and charge batteries. At night, or when solar generation is low, the system taps into stored energy, or to the grid and generator.
“This reduces reliance on diesel and unstable grid supply, enabling smoother school operations,” Mabonga said.
Though the upfront payment and the monthly payments seem substantial, the savings are greater still, with a nearly 80% cut in energy costs, Weloba said.
“Now we pay about 200,000 shillings (around C$2,200), for the loan per month, which is still lower than what we had previously been paying for electricity.”
The savings have been redirected toward infrastructure and other school initiatives.
Households and small businesses are also adopting off-grid solar. At Kakuma Market in Turkana County, where grid access is limited, 29-year-old fish retailer Josephine Erika can keep up to 50 kilograms of stock fresh in a solar-powered refrigerator. She acquired it in January, 2025, by partnering with a solar energy company.
“Around Lake Turkana, fishers often had to sell quickly at low prices or dry the fish because fresh fish could not be preserved reliably,” Kimani Gichuche, director at Adili Solar Hubs Limited, told The Mix.
With access to solar refrigeration, they’ve been able to extend the shelf life of fish, improving product quality,and reducing the pressure to sell immediately.
In Kiambu County, north of Nairobi, organic farmer Esther Wariara uses a solar-powered water pump to irrigate her crops, and a solar-powered dryer to preserve and dry different crops, including bananas and cassava. She told The Mix that before she invested in solar solutions, the high energy cost of using grid electricity ate into her returns.
By June, 2025, captive solar PV capacity—electricity generated primarily for customer’s own use—had increased to 300.5 megawatts, according to the agency responsible for regulating the energy sector, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA). Captive solar made up 60% of Kenya’s installed solar capacity, showing continued growth in privately-installed solar systems at institutions, businesses, and industries.
EPRA Acting Director General Joseph Oketch told The Mix that rooftop solar plays a key role in lowering electricity costs for Kenyans.
The declining costs of solar technologies are a significant factor driving adoption in Kenya, but experts say supportive government policies, regulatory frameworks, and energy sector initiatives have also played a large role in supporting this growth.
Kenya stands among the leaders in renewables policy—ranking first in Africa for sustainable energy policy, with a score of 72%, followed by Tunisia at 69%, found the 2023 Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) report.
EPRA developed and is implementing regulations aimed at encouraging renewable energy adoption, including PV rules that provide for licencing of all players in the value chain, with the aim of enforcing the quality of equipment and installations.
Net-metering regulations and solar water heating regulations provide for the banking of excess renewable generation through the grid, encourage renewables adoption, and enforce standards, Oketch said.
Yet experts don’t see solar as a silver bullet for Kenya’s energy challenges.
“Affordability remains a hurdle as solar solutions come with high upfront costs, and sometimes users fall behind in payment, leading to disconnection,” Mabonga said.
Skilled maintenance personnel are also scarce, especially in rural areas. “Quality and maintenance issues exist—especially for the consumer devices—and [there are] limited productive uses of the energy, since most of these systems are too small for energy-intensive activities,” Oketch said.
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I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
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