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Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa bordering Ethiopia and South Sudan to the north, Somalia to the east, and Tanzania to the south. The Indian Ocean washes the shores of the country to the south-east. The total length of the country's coastline is 536 km [3].

Source: [1,2,3,4,5]

According to 2023 statistics, Kenya, which ranks 51^st in the world in terms of the size of its territory, is home to around 57 million people. In terms of population density, the country occupies the 126^th place in the world. Kenya is a presidential republic divided into 47 counties. The national capital and the country's largest city is Nairobi. Mombasa is the second largest city and the country’s chief port.

The rating positions of Kenya relative to other countries have been determined for an extensive list of economic, energy, innovative and educational indices, as well as for metrics reflecting the state of the environment. The economic indices include, for example, GDP per capita, annual average GDP growth, high-technology exports, and others. The list of energy indices includes proven reserves of oil, gas and coal, production-consumption ratio combined, and energy use, etc. Each of the indices has a ranked list of included member countries. Since the number of countries in each rating is different for each index, the positioning of the country of interest is displayed on a special chart, where the vertical axis is a uniform relative scale from 0 to 1, whereas the horizontal axis denominates the various indices and respective numbers relating to the descriptions given underneath.
Thus, in such a relative “0-1” diagram, the country’s position is marked with a dot in proportion to its location in the original rating list. If the country is among the leaders regarding the selected indicator, it will be marked close to 1 in the upper green zone on the relevant chart “0-1”, if the country is an outsider in the rating list, then it will be marked in the lower red zone of the chart “0-1”, etc.

Ranking position of Kenya for list of economic indices:

In terms of GDP (0.72) and Annual average GDP growth in %, (0.87), Kenya demonstrates quite high rates compared to other countries of the world. However, GDP per capita is relatively low (0.21). Other indices demonstrating the weak economic position of the country are Inflation rate (0.20), the 2021 Index of Economic Freedom (0.22), and the Global Competitiveness Index 2019 (0.33). Data on the use of intellectual property is not available, so this position on the chart above is blank.

Kenya has proven reserves of coal, such as in the Mui basin in Kitui County, and oil has been discovered in the Tertiary Rift Basin. For example, there are more than 600 million barrels of recoverable oil resources in the South Lokichar basin [6]. But Kenya's fossil fuel resources are underexploited so the country depends on imports, mostly coal and petroleum products.
Kenya has a fairly high overall renewable energy potential, including geothermal, solar, wind, biomass, and hydropower, but the country is far from making the most of it. If this potential is fully exploited, Kenya can achieve a complete transition to renewable energy sources.

 Table 1.Renewable energy resources of Kenya

*for most of the territory of the country

Geothermal energy and hydropower prevail in terms of installed renewable energy capacities (35.8% and 32.4%, respectively), followed by wind energy (16.5%), solar PV (11.6%) and bioenergy (3.7%). Moreover, hydropower and other renewables play a significant role in Kenya’s power generation, contributing about 92% to all electricity produced in 2022.
In some places of the northwest area, between Eastern and Rift Valley provinces, the solar GHI intensity reaches 6.5-6.8 kWh/m² per day. The percentage of solar energy harnessed for commercial and domestic applications is insignificant compared to the available potential.

LAMU MANDA. Country: KENYA. Latitüde: -2.25. Longitude: 40.91
Sky cover, %

Kenya is endowed with favorable wind speeds. In a number of regions of the country, mainly in Eastern province and along the coastline of the Lake Turkana, wind speed reaches 7.5 m/s at a height of 50 m.

MALINDI. Country: KENYA. Latitüde: -3.23. Longitude: 40.1. 10 m
Wind speed, m/s



Considerable agricultural area suggests that there is plenty of feedstock available for the development of bioenergy. According to the Energy and Petroleum Statistics Report 2022, the main sources of biomass in Kenya are charcoal, wood fuel, and agricultural waste. In addition, there is considerable potential for power generation using forestry and agro-industrial waste including bagasse. Biogas potential in Kenya has been identified in municipal waste, sisal and coffee production [14].

According to [6], in 2022 in Kenya, the total production of primary energy was 0.04 quadrillion Btu, while consumption was at the level of 0.308 quadrillion Btu. Thus, the share of domestic production in primary energy consumption was 12,99%. This makes Kenya a country heavily dependent on energy imports.

Domestic generation fully meets Kenya's electricity needs. Total electricity generation in the country has grown by about 1.5 times over the past ten years. In 2022, approximately 67% of electricity was produced by non-hydro renewable power plants, about 25% – by hydroelectric power plants and only 8% at plants powered by fossil fuels. It should be noted that electricity production from non-hydro renewable sources has almost quadrupled over the past 10 years. Geothermal generation currently accounts for the majority of electricity generation (53.6%) and will continue to take the lead due to the relatively low cost of generation and independence from weather conditions.

The chart of Kenya's energy indices is presented in the figure below.

The fact that the lion's share of Kenya's electricity comes from renewable sources is definitely reflected in the energy index chart, where the country has the highest result among those represented for the Electricity – from other renewable sources (0.95). In addition, Kenya has a relatively good ratio of electricity production to consumption (0.62). Almost all of Kenya's other rankings presented in the chart are well below the global average or are not available at all, as in the case of the main indicators for fossil fuels.

A territorial map showing distribution of the largest infrastructure projects of the fossil fuel sector and electricity is displayed in Figure 5. Kenya doesn’t have large crude oil, natural gas and coal reserves or they are underexploited. The main oil field extraction activity is located in the north-west area of country, Turkana basin. Kenya imports all of its petroleum product needs by providing product transportation infrastructure, including storage and pipeline services. According to [14], the total length of pipeline infrastructure currently in use is about 1,342 km. The pipeline network runs from the port of Mombasa, where the country's main oil terminal and refinery are also located, to the port of Kisumu (Lake Victoria) with its associated power plants and storage facilities.
According to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority [14], the installed renewable energy capacity as of June 2022 was 2,481.69 MW, of which 837.58 MW was generated from hydro. Hydropower generation declined in 2021-2022 due to poor hydrology, particularly the fallen levels of the Kiambere and Terquel dams, which are marked on the map below.
As of 2019, Kenya registered some small-scale hydropower plant up to 10 MW with a total installed capacity of 39.4 MW.

Figure 5. Basic Infrastructure facilities of the fossil fuel sector and Electricity production in Kenya

As already mentioned, geothermal energy dominates the country's electricity system. According to [14], Kenya is number one in Africa and seventh in the world in terms of installed geothermal generating capacity. Geothermal plants of various types are concentrated mainly in the west of the country, the largest of which is the Olkaria, consisting of several units with a total capacity of 727 MW.
In Kenya, there has been a significant increase in the use of solar photovoltaic systems. The most powerful of these, Garissa Solar Power, is located in the east of the country and has an installed capacity of about 50 MW.
As of 2022, Kenya has an installed wind capacity of about 440 MW contributing over 16% to country’s energy mix. Lake Turkana (310MW) located in Loiyangalani District, in Marsabit County, is the largest wind plant connected to the grid.
Figure 6. Renewable energy in Kenya

Given the significant renewable energy potential in the country, the government of the Republic of Kenya is seeking to expand energy production from renewable sources. The 2017-2037 Power Development Plan foresees that by 2037, renewable energy sources will provide more than 60% of the country's installed energy capacity. Along with ambitions to triple geothermal energy production and double hydro capacity, it is expected that by 2037 the installed capacity of solar energy will increase to 852 MW, and wind energy sources will reach 845 MW [15].

Furthermore, a great deal of attention is paid to bioenergy that contributes 68% of the country’s final energy demand, especially for cooking and heating. The Kenya Bioenergy Strategy 2020-2027 aims to increase the sustainable exploitation of biomass resources and realize the full potential of bioenergy in Kenya. The strategy will support the development of bioenergy as an additional energy source in the medium term and in the long term as an alternative to fossil fuels. The overall stated goal of the Bioenergy Strategy is "sustainable bioenergy for all" by 2028 [16].

The following chart shows the position of Kenya in terms of education and innovation:
 

Indicators related to environmental issues are presented in the following diagram:

[1] List of sovereign states and dependencies by area / Wikipedia / en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependencies_by_area
[2] List of countries and dependencies by population density / Wikipedia / en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density
[3] Kenya / The world factbook / Library / Central Intelligence Agency / www.cia.gov
[4] GDP, PPP (constant 2011 international $) / World Bank, International Comparison Program database. License: CC BY-4.0 / Data / The World Bank / www.worldbank.org
[5] GDP per capita, PPP (current international $) / World Bank, International Comparison Program database. License: CC BY-4.0 / Data / The World Bank / www.worldbank.org
[6] Kenya / Geography / U.S. Energy Information Administration (December, 2022) / www.eia.gov/beta/international/analysis.cfm
[7] BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2020 - 2022 (PDF) / BP / www.bp.com
[8] Solar resource data obtained from the Global Solar Atlas, owned by the World Bank Group and provided by Solargis / Global Solar Atlas / globalsolaratlas.info
[9] Wind Map / Global Wind Atlas 2.0, a free, web-based application developed, owned and operated by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in partnership with the World Bank Group, utilizing data provided by Vortex, with funding provided by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). For additional information: https://globalwindatlas.info
[10] Agricultural land (% of land area) / Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site. License: CC BY-4.0 / Data / The World Bank / www.worldbank.org
[11] Forest area (% of land area) / Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site. License: CC BY-4.0 / Data / The World Bank / www.worldbank.org
[12] 2016 Annual U.S. & Global Geothermal Power Production Report (PDF) / 2016 / Reports / Geothermal Energy Association / geoenergy.org
[13] What a Waste 2012 (PDF) / Resources / The World Bank / www.worldbank.org
[14] ENERGY & PETROLEUM STATISTICS REPORT FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE 2022 / EPRA / www.epra.go.ke
[15] Least cost power development plan 2017-2037 /Republic of Kenya / www.decoalonize.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LCPDP-Least-Cost-Power-Development-Plan-2017-2037-not-2022-updated-June-2018.pdf
[16] BIOENERGY STRATEGY 2020-2027 / energy.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Bioenergy-strategy-final-16112020sm.pdf

The sources of charts and curves are specified under the images.

For more information about the energy industry in Kenya see here