Amid the rising cost of grid power, residents of Gikoe village in Murang’a County are benefiting from affordable alternative electricity whose realization started with dreams of a curious inventor, John Magiro.
Developed at a cost of Ksh 105.7 million (€700,000) with technical and funding support from National Environment Trust Fund (NETFUND),World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) Hydrobox, a Belgian equity investor, and Belgium’s Belgium’s FINEXPO, Magiro Hydro Electricity power plant provides 0.5 megawatt of electricity to more than 2000 households in Gikoe village which has in turn helped accelerate the government’s rural electrification programme.
The power plant which will be scaled to reach 3000 households is currently powering primary and secondary schools in the area, a data center and a tea factory in the area at 20pc lower tariff that what consumers connected to the grid pay.
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statics (KNBS) indicates that year-on-year price of a 50kwh of electricity to May this year has risen 66.5pc.
Through containerized hybrid hydro-solar power technology, developer Hydrobox is targeting to scale the innovation to reach more than 1 million people by harnessing mini and micro hydro power generation across small rivers in the country.
