This archive report was first published on 6 July 2020.
Busia County is set to benefit from a 132 kW solar grid system, which will provide clean, cheaper, and reliable water supply to over 7,500 households in Matayos and Teso South Sub Counties.
According to Davis and Shirtliff Chief Executive Officer, David Gatende, the installation of the grid system is transformative and will go a long way in ensuring thousands of residents in the Western region access clean water supply.
‘I commend the County Government of Busia who will save a lot in exchequer expenditure with this renewable energy and redirect electricity bills savings to other development projects to boost the quality of life to residents and boost the County’s profile in green energy generation in Western Kenya,’ said Gatende.
The new system is expected to generate about 200MWh of solar energy annually, helping to reduce the electrical power bills significantly. It generates power during the day, which is directly consumed, and any deficit is covered by the power from the utility power supply.
‘If solar is generating more than what is consumed, the monitoring device used is able to limit feeding back to the grid,’ said Davis & Shirtliff Solar Division Manager, Norman Chege.
The 200MWh/year solar power generation at the current mains power consumption rate of 22/kWh would translate to about Ksh 4.4million savings per year for the Busia County Government.
This would imply approximately 4-5 years Return on Investment, and this matches most of the other Solar Grid Tie Project proposals offered regionally.
