SERC

By Evans Ongwae

Through a GIZ-Green Climate Fund (GCF) project, Strathmore University Energy Research Centre (SERC) is empowering stove producers and last-mile entrepreneurs with skills to help them improve their access to productive resources and sustainable earning potential. These include market-oriented technical, entrepreneurial and managerial skills, confidence building, and other areas of expertise.

The project is systematically linked and integrated with other complementary interventions, such as access to markets, appropriate technology, microfinance, entrepreneurship development and follow-up technical assistance, as well as mentoring and coaching services. It adopts a comprehensive, demand-driven, and gender responsive strategy to help entrepreneurs in the cookstove sector to professionalise their businesses.

Under the quality assurance work package, the project further seeks to improve the efficiency, durability and safety of biomass cooking stoves in the country, which directly results in better quality of life in terms of health (reduced carbon emissions), time (reduce period of cooking), money (reduced cost of cooking) and climate (reduced deforestation). All the benefits are aligned to the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum (MoEP) goal of “Universal Access to Modern Cooking Solutions for all Kenyans by 2030” (revised to 2028 by the Principal Secretary, in 2019), and to the Sustainable Development Goal (SGDs). 

In particular, the project supports SDG 7 on affordable and clean energy; SDG 3 on good health and well-being, with respect to reducing the number of household air pollution-related deaths, currently estimated at three million deaths annually (WHO 2022 household air pollution burden of disease); SDG 5 on gender equality by reducing drudgery in cooking, particularly for women and the girl child; and SDG 13 on climate action by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). SERC is doing so through quality assurance, and capacity building initiatives targeting the cookstove value chain. 

Clean cooking drive

Pre-measurement of the amount of charcoal (fuel) used in the Hot Start Phase of the Water Boiling Test.

GIZ-GCF Project Coordinator, Teddy Nalubega, says clean cooking is of interest to Kenya. The Government is pursuing the goal of universal access to clean cooking (or climate-friendly cooking) by 2028. 

She explains why this matters. “More than 80 percent of rural and urban Kenya combined use biomass for cooking (Sustainable Energy for all Africa hub 2023). This affects people’s quality of life (because inefficient cookstoves cause indoor air pollution, which is unhealthy). It causes loss of time (spent collecting wood fuel), and reduced forest cover.”

Ms Nalubega adds: “SERC comes in to provide a solution on how to reduce the sale of biomass cooking stoves that are less efficient, by helping grow the numbers and the sale of more efficient ones.”

SERC, she continues, established a lab for testing the efficiency levels of biomass cookstoves sold in the market.

She says that the lab initiated stove testing this year and has so far tested four brands and found the efficiency levels could be better.  Three brands scored less than 35 percent.

Ms Nalubega says SERC encourages cookstove producers to ask for testing services at the Centre. The facility started testing with stoves brought in through the GCF project implementing partners such as GIZ, who work with producers. The testing lab is open to all cookstove producers for stove testing services, new product design and product improvement under research and development at SERC.

“We are working with cooking stoves producers and last mile entrepreneurs,” says Ms Nalubega.

The project is supporting these producers, most of them artisanal and others professional, to improve the quality of their stoves and raise efficiency levels to at least 35 percent or more, in line with Kenya Bureau of Standards (KBS) guidelines.

An energy-saving rocket stove.

Impact

Ms Nalubega sees the GIZ-GCF project’s quality assurance initiative at SERC making a major contribution towards clean cooking, with tremendous impact.

“It will help improve the quality of life (health and wealth) for cookstove users, especially women and children, save time and money, reduce deaths caused by indoor pollution, and (help) stem climate change,” asserts Ms Nalubega.

Professionalising the value chain

The Ag Co-Director at SERC, Prisca Atieno, says through the GIZ-GCF project, the centre is helping entrepreneurs in the cooking stoves value chain to professionalise their businesses.

“We are honing their entrepreneurial skills,” she says, adding that they are particularly bolstering women-led enterprises “to stand the test of time.”

She observes that the traditional biomass cooking stoves business is dominated by artisanal enterprises. “Their businesses can grow once they have been professionalised. They can get loans to expand their operations, and get large orders, for example, from the humanitarian sector,” says Ms Atieno.

SERC has developed a business development manual used in training this group of entrepreneurs “to bolster their entrepreneurial skills – such as developing sustainable business models, marketing and branding, calculating costs and pricing, financial planning and management, record-keeping, business planning, and ICT skills for business, among other modules.”

So far, SERC has trained 200 entrepreneurs, both men and women, with women-led enterprises accounting for 44 percent.

Ms Atieno adds: “We plan to reach out to more people and share knowledge with them. The training takes four to five days and most of it takes place at the county level.”

The project targets to have trained at least 1,000 by December 2024. Those who have received the training have experienced business growth, according to Ms Atieno.

Expansion of the training will involve SERC training Trainers of Trainers (ToTs). These trainers will offer training in the counties. This is through technical and vocational education and training (TVETs) in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA), Ms Atieno explains.

The GIZ-GCF project started in September 2021 and ends in December 2024.

About SERC

SERC is an applied technology laboratory within Strathmore University. Established in 2012, it carries out high-quality research, consultancy, professional training, laboratory testing and project development in the energy sector. SERC effectively offers these services to government agencies, private and public sector players.

To learn more about SERC and the services it offers, visit www.strathmore.edu

This article was first published on the Daily Nation and was written by Evans Ongwae

Kenya can accelerate e-mobility uptake by reviewing the taxation, standards, importation and registration of electric vehicles. Policies in favour of e-mobility are expected to significantly reduce the transport sector’s carbon emissions. 

Several studies funded by GIZ and conducted by Strathmore University in collaboration with Knights Energy recommend so. 

Largely, the studies suggest that tax reliefs or exemptions for electric vehicle components can boost e-mobility in the country. Such measures can spur local assembly, conversion, and manufacturing of electric vehicles, observes the report titled, ‘Importation and taxation of electric vehicles in Kenya: Proposals for alignment of the registration process.’

One of the researchers who participated in the study, Ignatius Maranga of Strathmore Energy Research Centre (SERC), says the studies identified barriers that hinder further uptake of electric vehicles in the country. 

A report compiled from the study notes that, “since Kenya doesn’t manufacture electric vehicles, importation and taxation plays a key role in the availability and affordability of vehicles. Taxation is a determinant of the final price of electric vehicles.”

The study is funded by the Advancing Transport Climate Strategies in Rapidly Motorising Countries project (TraCS). TraCS is a project implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. It is funded through the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

Kenya aims to reduce its overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30 percent by the year 2030 compared to the business as usual scenario.

National data shows that the transport sector accounts for about 20 percent of Kenya’s total GHG emissions. The emissions are increasing at a faster rate than in any other sector, hence the need to reduce them.

A TraCS analysis shows that an increased uptake of electric mobility has the second highest mitigation potential.

The report identifies electric mobility as a key factor to contribute to Kenya’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) of GHG emissions.

Mr. Maranga, quality engineer at SERC, says the year-long study carried out in 2020 looked at the e-mobility status in the country. It examined the existing tax regime, the status of standards on electric vehicles, and the registration of imported EVs by the National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA). 

The report recommends that the Government establishes an electric mobility inter-agency team consisting of relevant public sector institutions.  The team can comprise institutions such as the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), NTSA, the State Department of Transport, the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Environment, other stakeholders, and the private sector.

This article was first published in the Sunday Nation under the Climate Action series on 27th August 2023 by eongwae@ke.nationmedia.com

Since 2014, Strathmore University’s Energy Research Centre (SERC) has been offering training on solar Photovoltaic (PV) systems, mostly to engineers and technicians. Now, anyone interested in learning about how to install the systems can do so at SERC and several technical institutions.

This is after GIZ funded the training of trainers of trainers (ToTs) for 40 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions in the country, at SERC.

“These trainers have been equipped to teach solar PV installation following the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) curriculum,” says SERC quality engineer, Ignatius Maranga.

Already, the training is helping increase the uptake of solar PV systems in the country, thus boosting the tapping of a key renewable energy source, says, Mr Maranga.

SERC, established in 2012 to offer renewable energy consultancy services, has trained 4,000 engineers and technicians in the course on how to design, install and maintain PV systems. “Majority are engineers and technicians who want to seek licensing by EPRA as solar PV installers,” explains Mr Maranga.

He says whereas majority of trainees who undergo the Tier 3 course level training at SERC are engineers, experienced technicians also go through the course. SERC also offers tiers 1 and 2 course level, which are the basic and intermediate levels of the courses respectively.

The technical courses are classified according to EPRA’s Solar PV regulations of 2012. People who undergo the Tier 1 training are capable of installing DC systems of up to 100 watts. Those who have undergone Tier 2 training can design, install and maintain standalone PV systems of up to 300 watts. Those who complete the Tier 3 training have no limit as to the capacity of the PV solar systems they can install in household, commercial and industrial buildings.

Mr Maranga says demand for the training is “very high as we run them once every month, and the number per class are 15.” He, however, says solar water pumping and solar cooling courses run twice a year.

Mr Maranga added that the increase in the number of skilled electrical engineers and technicians is enabling more individuals and organisations to adopt solar PV technology. It has also spurred SERC to develop some specific courses, such as solar water pumping and solar cooling systems training.

Actors in the humanitarian sector, such as the Norwegian Refugee Council, and ICRC have funded the training of their engineers and technicians.

SERC developed a solar cooling training curriculum with the support of Germany’s University of Hohenheim, Solar Cooling Engineering and funding from GIZ. Three small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the first beneficiaries of solar cooling systems developed after the course. These are: a herbs farm in Thika, a dairy farm in Tongaren, and Dunga Beach for fish farming.

This article was first published in the Sunday Nation under the Climate Action series on 27 th August 2023 by eongwae@ke.nationmedia.com

Strathmore Energy Research Centre (SERC) won an award from Innovate UK to develop a two-year project with SolarisKit, to create a center of excellence for solar thermal installation using the world’s first flat-packed solar thermal collector. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). This center of excellence will harness the potential of solar thermal technology in Kenya, Rwanda, and sub-Saharan Africa in meeting its heating needs. Globally, solar thermal technology provides a way to address the energy trilemma by reducing consumer energy costs, improving energy security, while lowering carbon emissions through heating. However, the current solar thermal technology penetration across sub-Saharan Africa remains low at 0.5 percent.