Appraising Kenyan energy demand policies for energy efficiency improvement and GHG emissions mitigation

Abstract

Like in most Sub-Saharan Africa, biomass is the most consumed fuel in overall Kenyan energy demand. In addition to biomass, other end-use fuels are also consumed in the country, mostly by economic sectors. However, electricity demand has been the only end-use energy considered in most energy planning studies conducted for the country. There is a need to develop robust energy planning policies considering all end-use fuels demand in order to give insights on overall supply needed by residential and economic sectors of the country. Therefore, this study used LEAP “Low Emissions Analysis Platform” model to analyze the country's total energy demand in all sectors. Results show that the country's total energy demand would keep rising; this was 685.4 PJ in 2015 and would grow up to 857.5 PJ in 2040. The residential sector would remain the main consumer of total final energy as its consumption would constitute 79.6 % of total energy demand by 2040. Firewood and charcoal would remain the main consumed fuels, especially for cooking while electricity would stay the main consumed energy for lighting. Three energy policies (universal electrification -UE, efficient lighting - EL and efficient cooking stoves -EFCS), found strategic priorities by the Kenyan Government, were analyzed. While the UE will require the country to increase its power supply, the implementation of EL and EFCS policies for highly consumed fuels would enable to save a significant amount of energy, reduce a high rate of deforestation and mitigate GHG emissions. This study would help Kenyan policymakers to strategize on all-fuels energy supply in order to meet the total energy demand.

Keywords

• Energy efficiency
• Greenhouse gas emissions
• Energy demand
• Energy policy