EABL Solar Project: East African Breweries Limited is set to quit the Kenya Power electricity grid in a new plan that will see it install a multi billion solar power plant.
The brewer has launched an ambitious Sh. 22 billion solar project that will see it delink from Kenya Power before 2030. EABL is EABL targeting to generate at least 9.3 megawatts at its Ruaraka plant and 2.4-megawatt from solar power in Kisumu in the 100 percent shift to green energy.
“We are committed to sourcing 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030 in all of our facilities. Sh. 22 billion investment also includes the production of biofuel. This is already being partly implemented in our Kisumu plant, with 10 percent of our current electricity requirements being met by renewable energy from solar,” Kenya Breweries Limited managing director John Musunga said.
This comes as Kenya Power continues to raise alarm that its industrial customers are shifting to solar power. Currently, industrial customers make up 68.31 percent of the Kenya Power sales revenues.
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Large consumers who have commissioned solar power plants include Africa Logistics Properties (ALP), Mombasa International Airport, the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe). In September 2018, ALP installed a 506 kilowattpeak (kWp) hybrid solar PV, hoping to save Sh. 12 million per year. In the same month Icipe commissioned its Sh. 256 million two solar PV power plants located in Kasarani, Nairobi, and on the shores of Lake Victoria. The plants have a combined generating capacity of 1,156 kWp
In the financial year 2019, Kenya Power got some Sh. 63 billion from the industrial customers who bought 4,462 Gigawatt hours.
