Powering Agriculture with Renewable Energy

Overview

Innovator	Ariya Capital Group Limited
Project	Powering Agriculture with Renewable Energy
Collaborators	African Solar Designs (Kenya) Windfire Group (United Kingdom)
Location Applied	Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

Agriculture is a cornerstone of Kenya’s economy, with horticulture and the export of flowers serving as a major employer. Energy is an important part of modern Kenyan agriculture, accounting for 15 percent of input costs. A lack of stable and available energy sources is an issue, which leads farmers to rely on expensive, polluting diesel generators as a backup source.

Clean Energy Solution

Ariya’s project will provide end to end cost-effective, low-risk renewable energy generation and energy efficiency services to local flower and horticulture farms in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. These services will be structured to minimize the up-front investment required by farmers. A mixed technology approach, using various DRE and energy efficiency solutions, will allow flexibility in designing energy systems tailored for each user.

Impact

Wind Turbine Model © Ariya

The project will provide flower farms and horticulture groups with dependable, cost effective, green energy solutions, which ultimately impact their bottom line. Increased reliability of power will allow farmers to use more sophisticated techniques, such as hydroponics and aeroponics, which lead to improved productivity and reduced water usage. Beneficial impacts will include reduced carbon emissions thus allowing East African horticulture exporters to retain their competitive edge by neutralizing the carbon cost of flying their produce to European markets, on-demand power production, potential return of surplus power to the grid, and job creation.

Organization

Ariya Capital Group (Ariya) is an experienced fund manager that develops, structures, invests, and manages clean energy and infrastructure projects throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Ariya has partnered with African Solar Designs (ASD), a Kenya-based renewable and rural energy company, and Windfire, a UK-based renewable energy company that provides medium-scale Vertical Axis Wind Turbine solutions for the Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) sector.

Progress Update

Ariya and its partner, ASD, have conducted a significant outreach effort to sensitize and educate farm directors, general managers, and others on the benefits of renewable energy, and to introduce the Ariya/ASD finance, installation, and operations and maintenance model. As part of the effort, three workshops were held in areas where there are clusters of floriculture and horticulture - Naivasha, Nanyuki and Athi River. Ariya has conducted feasibility studies of 30 of the 70 farms that it has shortlisted for consideration as potential recipients of the systems. Of the 30 farms, 19 are viable for systems and agreements have been signed for four systems. A qualified and local engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contractor has been selected and local engineering companies have also been identified to provide the necessary monitoring systems and other ad hoc mechanical and engineering works.

Further Information

• Powering Agriculture Portal on energypedia
  
• Powering Agriculture Homepage, Winners/ Innovators
  
• Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development
  
• Powering Agriculture Newsletters
  
• Kenya Energy Situation
  
• Tanzania Energy Situation
  
• Uganda Energy Situation
  
• Website Ariya Capital Group Limited
• Webite African Solar Designs
  
• Website Windfire Group