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Business leaders want to believe the ‘hustler nation’ promised by incoming president William Ruto will be marked by entrepreneurial vigour rather than spotty governance. Kenya has huge potential, but in an economy struggling with an enormous debt burden, grand visions such as a 100% renewable power sector by 2030 may be difficult to achieve, write Marc Howard and Jon Marks.

A move towards independent power transmission schemes being allowed to wheel power to private clients could prove a boon for commercial and industrial (C&I) developers. Panellists at the 20 September AIX Kenya roundtable predicted the environment will now become more favourable, following the election victory of William Ruto, after years when “we saw the government and utility push back on the C&I space owing to its revenue implications”.

Nigeria’s Starsight Energy and South Africa’s SolarAfrica have announced plans to merge in a deal which, if approved by regulators, will join two of Africa’s largest commercial and industrial (C&I) renewable power developers into a pan-continental player with a portfolio of over 220MW of operated and signed generation capacity.

Japan’s pledge to invest some $30bn in Africa over the next three years has underlined the Asian economic giant’s commitment to rapidly advance its relations, as well as to expand its presence, on a continent where Tokyo’s involvement has too often lagged behind other big nations.

Bboxx has concluded its acquisition of PEG Africa, giving the ­London-based firm access to four more African markets – Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Mali – while it is also tying up with more major corporates, creating ventures with Orange in Democratic Republic of Congo and Unilever in Kenya.

State utility Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has invited local and international consultants to conduct a feasibility study for green hydrogen (GH2), ammonia and fertiliser production.

Kenya’s incoming government will do well to learn from previous efforts to reform the electricity supply industry. It will be guided by a new energy white paper, which offers a roadmap to 2040 and which could help Kenya move towards upper-middle-income status. African Energy usually writes its own Views, but such is the plan’s importance that we asked a prominent industry player to assess the proposals and the industry’s direction of travel. The writer has asked to remain anonymous so as not to prejudice their position.

The draft Kenya Energy White Paper, published in July, set out an overarching approach to the country’s energy sector. The white paper was not designed as a formal policy document but rather one that proposed “the type of policies that will be needed to achieve the country’s energy objectives”.

KenGen has opted to raise the Masinga hydroelectric power dam’s spillway, rather than a bigger planned project to increase the size of the entire dam wall, following French-financed studies

Kenya Electricity Generating Company and Akiira Geothermal are planning the co-development of several new geothermal projects in KenGen’s first joint venture deal with an independent power producer (IPP), company officials told African Energy – and other IPP deals could follow for the state generation company.

Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has contracted Italian specialist Steam to conduct tests and set up a facility for extracting minerals such as silica and lithium from geothermal fluids, in a revenue diversification bid.

Kenyan elections always raise tensions and, sometimes, expectations – and opinion polls point to a close race for the presidency, in an important and tightly contested election in early August. The candidates’ energy policies look similar on paper, but investors expect very different approaches to emerge.

Progress in Kenya's energy sector has been mixed under President Uhuru Kenyatta. His successor will inherit an electricity supply industry (ESI) lacking strong unifying leadership at troubled utility Kenya Power – which is part-way through a turnaround – and at the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), as well as strained relations with many private investors. Other items in the next government’s in-tray will be the long-delayed auctions for renewable energy (RE) projects, as well as power market deregulation and implementation of the net-metering policy.

Industry actors in the Kenyan oil and gas sector are adopting a wait-and-see approach towards the 9 August presidential election, with many anticipating a change in regime following the vote.

More than four years after a signing a power purchase agreement (PPA), the backers of the Kopere solar PV plant in Nandi County are still waiting for the government to provide the letter of support required so the project can move on to the construction phase.