{"id":74757,"date":"2016-10-06T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T06:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=7d3e5ec37699f7fc0156a64ba451c895"},"modified":"2016-10-06T06:00:12","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T06:00:12","slug":"speech-british-high-commissioner-nic-haileys-speech-at-rec-100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=74757","title":{"rendered":"Speech: British High Commissioner Nic Hailey’s speech at REC 100"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Kenya\u2019s renewable energy sector is on the cusp of big things. With a Government committed to a 5000Mw plan by 2017, an established feed-in-tariff and an increasing demand for electricity as industrialisation continues at pace, the conditions are set for geothermal, wind and solar power to take off in a big way.<\/p>\n

Two main forces are driving this change.<\/p>\n

First is the enviable economic growth that Kenya has enjoyed in recent years and is predicted to maintain in the future. A recent McKinsey report recently identified Kenya as one of the five \u2018Young Lions\u2019 of the African Economy.<\/p>\n

The debate about \u2018Africa rising\u2019 still goes on, but what McKinsey have reported is a useful degree of granularity: that whilst some parts of the African economy may struggle in the years to come, some like Kenya will continue to shine. Rapid economic growth will be a trigger for greater demand for power: from businesses to produce goods and services; and from consumers as they buy more TVs, fridges, freezers and other goods.<\/p>\n

Kenya, rightly, as the Honorable Keter will point out, already has a renewable rich energy mix and will be looking to continue this for very solid economic reasons.<\/p>\n

The second driver is how global climate change policy is stimulating increased take up of renewable energy around the world leading to extraordinary and enormous economics of scale and efficiencies.<\/p>\n

Last year, we watched as the Paris climate negotiations sent a clear message to the world \u2013 to governments, to businesses, investors and citizens \u2013 that the future is low carbon. The Paris Agreement marked a clear turning point towards a sustainable and low carbon future, and in the process created a massive surge in market demand for renewable energy. This in turn is driving down prices and so increasing demand further.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth taking a moment to get our heads around the scale of these changes. In the world of computers we\u2019re familiar with Moore\u2019s law: namely that processing speeds for computers will double every two years, with prices falling. We\u2019re seeing something similar in renewables. 30 years ago, wind turbines were generally rated around 50kw. 15 years ago we were getting used to 2000kw (2Mw) turbines. Now, in the North Sea, we\u2019re anticipating 8Mw monsters offshore.<\/p>\n

Prices are falling similarly: solar panels now make up less than half the cost of the average PV installation and my Deputy High Commissioner is still fuming at the \u00a313,000 he paid to put 4kw on his roof in 2011 \u2013 something that might now cost only \u00a35,000. Offshore wind costs are another example of this curve: the UK agreed a strike price of \u00a3140 per Mw\/hour for offshore wind as recently as 2014. In the Netherlands the most recent auction saw suppliers coming forward to supply offshore wind for just \u00a370 per Mw\/hour.<\/p>\n

As a result of these changes, the UK now has three times more offshore wind \u2013 over 5000 Mw – than the entire generating capacity of the Kenyan grid. UK installed solar capacity \u2013 and let\u2019s face it, the UK isn\u2019t a sunny country \u2013 is over 10Gw \u2013 a 1400% increase on as recent as 2011.<\/p>\n

As such global demand pushes costs down, the implications for Kenya are clear. Renewables will not simply be environmentally beneficial, but economically advantageous. In time, they will push out hydrocarbons: the Stone Age didn\u2019t end because Neolithic man ran out of stones\u2026<\/p>\n

The UK and Kenya are together at the vanguard of this renewable energy, clean technology and innovation revolution. Kenya has one of the most active renewable energy sectors in Africa \u2013 second only to South Africa in terms of investment. The UK is a global leader in many of the sectors for which Kenya has greatest demand, as well as leading the way in innovative new technology such as wave power, tidal stream, pump storage and grid-scale flow batteries.<\/p>\n

Kenya has set ambitious targets to boost its energy mix as part of the Energy Pillar in Vision 2030. As it continues to strive with regional competitors like Ethiopia, it wants to keep energy costs down. Renewables will enable this. And UK companies are excited by the opportunities this creates. From project development to design, finance and investment, legal and security, R&D and consulting; to grid development, transmission and distribution \u2013 UK companies have the expertise to help Kenya achieve success.<\/p>\n

The energy market of tomorrow will \u2013 and must \u2013 look fundamentally different to yesterday. Out goes an industry dominated by giant utilities; a monopoly of centralised energy models. In comes a new, diverse market; driven by innovation, with an entrepreneurial, dynamic set of market participants. Put simply, new actors, new investors, new technology.<\/p>\n

A reliable electricity supply is one of the most powerful tools for helping people lift themselves out of poverty. Yet two out of three people in Sub-Saharan Africa are currently living without electricity access.<\/p>\n

20 years ago, there was a nine month wait in Kenya for a monopoly provided land telephone line. Then Safaricom arrived on the scene. In just ten years we have seen a total transformation of the way in which Africans communicate \u2013 the mobile revolution. Now we need \u2013 and I am convinced that we will see – a similar revolution in access to affordable clean energy over the next ten years.<\/p>\n

This will require governments, investors and aid agencies to tear down regulatory barriers and attract new finance. It will require us to develop markets where lower costs for renewable energy filter through to consumers rather than create opportunities for rent-seeking in an uncompetitive system where feed-in-tariffs do not fall.<\/p>\n

Of course the energy sector in Kenya is not without its challenges, more of which I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll hear about today. However the private sector has an opportunity to show the way in turning development challenges into business opportunities. Just as UK Aid and Vodaphone\/Safaricom did when partnering on a small innovation which became the Kenyan powerhouse that is M-PESA, we must put the private sector at the heart of these solutions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speech by Nic Hailey at UK-Kenya Renewable Energy Conference<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}