Plans are underway to upgrade Kenya’s national power grid from 3 Giga Watts to 100 Giga Watts by 2040.
President William Ruto revealed this during the African Climate Summit held in KICC on Monday arguing that the African continent is rich in minerals and resources and is capable of having fully dependable renewable sources of energy.
“The continent has enough potential to be entirely self-sufficient with the mix of wind, solar, geothermal, sustainable biomass and hydropower. In fact, Africa can be a green industrial hub that helps other regions achieve their net zero strategies by 2050,” said the Head of State.
Additionally, he added that Kenya’s current 3 Giga Watts grid is 92% renewable but should be 100% renewable by the year 2030.
Ruto urged delegates to take advantage of the geoeconomic opportunity in Africa. The President also opined that Africa should now embark on value addition processes of their minerals.
“Mining of battery-critical minerals like nickel, lithium and cobalt is estimated to generate around $11 billion, value-added activities such as refining these minerals into industry-grade metals quadruples the revenue to $50 billion.”
” If we consider the end-to-end value chain for electric vehicles, including the battery pack and all other components, the market value skyrockets to an astonishing $7 trillion,” President Ruto said.
“What these figures clearly demonstrate is that Africa can no longer afford a minimalist ‘short- termist raw-material-based approach’. The time has come for us to break out of the shackles of low ambition.”
The African Climate Summit is being held in Nairobi Kenya for the very first time from September 4th to 6th.
As a result, Parliament Road, Junction, Harambee Avenue City Hallway and Taifa Road are among roads closed temporarily.
The delegates attending are expected to deliberate on Africa’s position on the glovbal climate conversation as well as develop the Nairobian Declaration for green growththat will be used as a blue print for Africa as it transitions to green energy.
