Kenyan farmers say goodbye to blackouts and electricity bills

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Kelvin Maina Njuguna considers himself a full-time farmer. 

He rears cows, pigs, goats, and chickens on his 0.7 hectare farm in Kiambu County, about 25km from Nairobi, selling meat products to three butcheries, while also growing avocados and passion fruit. 

Njuguna prides himself on being an “innovative farmer who thinks outside the box”. 

That extends to his use of electricity. 

“I produce electricity from animal wastes in large quantities daily and save lots of money on monthly power bills. Besides saving money, I rely one hundred percent on green energy,” said Njuguna.

“I rarely experience issues like power blackouts in my home. I pay my child’s tuition fees comfortably, and I have another child on the way,” he added. 

Solomon Kamau, the manager of Sistema Bio in Kiambu County, a company that sells biodigesters to small and medium-sized farmers, said that animal excrement is increasingly becoming a game-changer for farmers in the area, with his company providing services to about 20 farmers every month. 

“If you want to produce electricity from chicken poop and droppings from other livestock, you first convert it to biogas, then into electricity. 

“That is the process and it’s very easy,” he said, adding that at least 40 litres of animal waste is needed each day to produce biogas.

“We collect faeces from chickens, cows, and pigs. It is sometimes mixed, and that is very effective. Chicken poop is very effective, but one has to be careful when collecting it as it gets contaminated with sawdust,” he said. 

“Chicken farmers who use the cage system produce pure droppings, resulting in good quality biogas.”

According to Kamau, the prices for the systems he provides range from just $800 to $10 000. 

The process involves the syntrophic acetogenic bacteria being produced.

This bacteria breaks down the biodegradable components for microbes to convert into methane through fermentation. 

In this process, called anaerobic digestion, which takes place in an airtight chamber, oxygen is absent. 

And it is not just farmers who are purchasing the system; it has also become increasingly popular with larger homeowners in some of Nairobi’s upmarket neighbourhoods, according to Kamau.

The Kenyan government is also exploring the possibility of implementing this technology to add extra megawatts to the national grid, which is run almost entirely on renewable energy.

More than 75% of energy in Kenya is generated from renewable sources, primarily geothermal power and hydropower. 

The government is searching for suitable land to construct a 45 megawatt facility. 

The project will involve collaboration between Kenya’s ministry of environment and the energy ministry. 

“Our ambition is that we merge this technology into our national grid. Or we look at an alternative of buying off the green electricity from farmers regularly,” said Soipan Tuya, cabinet secretary for environment and sanitation. 

Data from Energy Capital and Power, an Africa-focused global investment platform for the energy sector, shows that Kenya — which leads in biogas policies and investments in Africa and which has made the most progress towards establishing viable biodigester markets — has 17 000 household biogas digesters and 8 000 biogas plants. — bird story agency