Kenya targets to tap green hydrogen as its baseload power by 2028 in a phased plan estimated to cost Sh148.5 billion ($1 billion), underlining the country’s push to fully green the grid.
Baseload power refers to the minimum amount of electric power needed to be supplied to the electrical grid at any given time.
In its strategy on green hydrogen, the State said it intends to construct electrolysers with a capacity to generate up to 450 Megawatts (MW) of green hydrogen using clean energy in the next five years.
Electrolysers are devices that use electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, a process that produces hydrogen gas as a sustainable source of clean energy.
Kenya has for years relied on hydroelectricity as the baseload, but poor rains have since made geothermal power the biggest component in the national power electricity mix.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) last month disclosed that it plans to raise euros 1.8 million (Sh281.28 billion) worth of grants to help finance Kenya’s green hydrogen projects in the next few years.
“Establishment of a green hydrogen industry in Kenya requires a clear and focused enabling and supportive environment based on strong and well-aligned pillars,” Energy Cabinet Secretary Davies Chirchir says in the paper.
Green hydrogen has emerged as a viable alternative to meet the growing energy demand globally, free from carbon emissions. Green hydrogen, when burnt, generates heat while producing water.
Besides the EIB, the European Union last month agreed to provide nearly Sh1.9 billion ($13 million) in grants for investment in Kenya’s green hydrogen industry, further boosting the ambitious target of the latest clean energy frontier.
Kenya is banking on its vast potential of wind and solar power to realise the ambition of producing green hydrogen mainly along the Rift Valley.
Geothermal has in recent years turned out to be the baseload for Kenya in the wake of waning hydro-generation from the country’s dams, attributed to poor rains.
Official data shows that geothermal power accounted for 45.3 percent of the power mix as at the end of August, followed by hydro at 22.4 percent, 16.2 percent for wind while solar held a share of 3.5 percent. The dirty thermal power plants accounted for 7.8 percent.
