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A newly
installed wind cruiser in a home on the outskirts of Nairobi
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Jeff
Odera smiles contentedly as he gazes at his newly installed wind generator at
his home on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi. “I am pleased to
have access to a reliable personal power and I feel highly relieved from
worrying about costly electricity and kerosene bills,” he says.
Odera,
who does not have access to grid electricity, bought the wind generator dubbed
the ‘wind cruiser’ from a Nairobi-based firm known as Craftskills
Enterprises at 590 US Dollars. He says the machine produces enough energy to
provide lighting to his homestead and power household electric appliances.
Craftskills
Enterprises started working on wind power machines in 2001 and so far has been
able to manufacture wind generators and their accessories, which are sold all
over the country.
A
Matter of Necessity
The firm, whose products have been patented by the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI), was started by a Nairobi
resident,Mr Simon Mwacharo Guyo.
After
realizing the burgeoning demand for alternative sources of energy more so the
renewable ones, the two computer engineers sought out to design affordable wind
energy generators. Electricity is inaccessible to the majority of Kenyans, both
in rural and urban areas. The rural electrification programme, whose
implementation rests on the shoulders of Kenya Electricity Generation Company,
KENGEN, and the Kenya Power and Lighting Company, KPLC, two state corporations
charged with power generation and distribution respectively, has not succeeded.
This
in itself has made wind generators from Craftskills Enterprises find a ready
market in all parts of the country. “Customers come knocking, and therefore we
do not undertake any major marketing campaign,” says Mr Osula, the Craftskills
co-founder, who is also responsible for marketing the wind cruisers.
The
firm has a workshop in Kibera Suburb, South-West of Nairobi. It has employed six
artisans on a full-time basis and has also entered into partnership with
reputable engineering and marketing organizations for consultancy services in
the sphere of research and development.
Limited
Access to Energy
The
majority of Kenyans rely almost exclusively on biomass-wood, charcoal and
organic waste for cooking and heating, given that over 75 percent of the
population has no access to grid electricity or other forms of modern commercial
energy. Ironically, renewable energies such as wind and solar power remain
under-utilized despite being abundantly available.
Indeed,
fuel wood supplies are fast dwindling in the country and poor families are
compelled to spend more time and money to procure it.
On
the other hand, the high cost of imported wind generators has hindered
harnessing of wind energy in the country in the same way the cost of solar
panels has prevented many households from utilizing solar power. Thus, the
Craftskills initiative to locally manufacture affordable wind generators has
filled a big void at an opportune time.
Research
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Artisans
working on a wind cruiser at the workshop
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The
firm, after experimenting on a range of technologies that could provide cheaper,
durable and efficient wind turbines, managed to devise wind cruisers of various
specifications.
The average wind cruiser ranges in weight from 15 to 35kg, is 6 to 10 feet in propeller diameter, has tails that can curl up when there is too much wind thrust and has a peak power output between 150-1800 watts.
Unlike
conventional wind turbines, which use gears and hence require strong winds to be
propelled, Craftskills machines operate on bearings, are rugged, strong against
windstorms and utilize any slight breeze.
Smaller
or bigger cruisers can also be made to suit the needs of individual customers.
The bearings, which the wind cruisers run on, take years to replace, and their
spare parts are locally available. The machines also have charge controllers
that enable them to regulate themselves during high wind.
Craftskills
enterprise sources 90 percent of the materials used to manufacture its machines
locally. It uses recycled metals to make the machines and the only imported
components are magnets.
The
demand for the wind cruisers, which unlike conventional wind machines
automatically seek wind in any direction and can also be hybrided (used
alongside) with solar panels, is phenomenal. Clients include schools, hospitals,
urban and rural communities. Osula says that owing to high demand of their wind
power technology, they intend to venture into the neighbouring countries of
Uganda and Tanzania.
Many
Benefits
Wind
energy is a readily available resource that if properly utilized could turn
around the economy of Kenya, more so in the rural areas where 80 percent of the
population reside.
With
the availability of power, the youth, who are the worst hit by soaring
unemployment currently standing at over 40 percent, venture into
micro-enterprises, an undertaking that can stem rural-urban migration.
In
a country where agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, Craftskills
Enterprises endeavour to meet energy needs of livestock, horticultural farmers
and fishermen who require power for cold storage facilities and other uses.
“We
are encouraging farmers’ co-operative societies in rural areas to acquire wind
cruiser systems so that they can preserve their perishable products and reduce
wastage,” said Osula. Indeed, in arid and semi-arid areas of the country,
individual households and communities have acquired wind cruisers for pumping
water for domestic and irrigation purposes. These cottage industries will stir
economic growth and subsequently fight poverty. At the same time, the country
will save a lot in terms of foreign currency by relying on locally manufactured
wind machines.
Safe
Energy
Environmental
problems such as climatic change, air pollution and acid rain are caused by
chemicals such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, derived
from fossil fuels. However wind power is a harmless sustainable energy with
virtually no threat to the environment.
Thus
the Craftskills Enterprise initiative is not only significantly empowering
ordinary people but is also an appropriate energy technology option contributing
to the protection of the environment.
Poor
Policies
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An
artisan checks the propellers of a newly installed wind cruiser to ensure
they are in order
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Despite
the fact that the government of Kenya is exploring renewable energy sources to
meet energy needs in the country to the extent that it has boosted exploitation
of its massive geothermal energy reserves, estimated to have the potential of
producing over 2000 megawatts; it is yet to develop a wind resource map that
could guide those who want to establish large-scale wind-generated energy
systems.
Craftskills
officials point out that the government levies high taxes on local technologies
for renewable energy exploitation and there is lack of parameters for
standardization of these technologies. Moreover, the high level of investment
required in establishing renewable energy generation systems is hampering the
growth of the sector.
All
in all, as political and economical challenges face Kenya as well as other
African countries in regard to utilization of renewable energies such as wind,
investment in sustainable forms of energy is the solution to addressing security
issues and climatic change. Such a strategy will also lessen dependency on
hydropower, which these countries heavily rely on.
In
his address to a Sustainable Energy Conference Finance Initiative early this
year, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
Dr. Klaus Toepfer, said that reliance on fossil fuel and centralized
infrastructure will not serve the vast majority of people in rural areas, where
economic benefits of a centralized energy system are elusive.
Worse,
is that these populations depend exclusively on fossil fuels for cooking and
heating in simple devices that produce large amounts of indoor and local air
pollution linked to between four and five percent of the global disease burden.
Hence,
technologies that provide accessible, affordable, reliable and efficient sources
of energy like the Craftskills initiative are poised to meet this challenge.
Sources:
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Craftskills
Enterprises
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Ministry
of Energy: Government of Kenya
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United
Nations Environmental Programme Reports
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Field
interviews by the writer
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Wanzala Bahati Justus is a freelance journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Your emails will be forwarded to him by contacting the editor at: ScienceTech@islam-online.net
