SETTING UP OF AN INTERNATIONAL STANDARD PV LABORATORY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, KENYA

摘要

(max 2000 characters): Kenya ranks second in Africa in number of off-grid solar PV installations. There are more than 300,000 Solar Home Systems installed in rural and peri-urban areas as the utility, Kenya Power, targets to have electricity accessible to more than 70% of the population by 2020, from the current 35% (Kenya Power, 2014). More than 25,000 schools outside of the radius of grid extension for the next 5 years also benefit from the energy from the sun. There are around 600 companies in the country dealing with solar PV equipment. As there is only one PV panel assembly plant and one battery producer, most of the equipment are imported. Quite a number of barriers plague this industry making solar PV power generation a negligible portion of the national energy mix. Lack of awareness, high cost of money, lack of training capacity for the industry mainly at technician level and last but not least an influx of sub-standard products flooding the market have been cited at the main challenges in the Kenyan solar market. Strathmore Energy Research Centre, with financial support from GIZ and technical support from Fraunhofer ISE started the process of setting up an international standard laboratory to whose main objective is improving reliability and performance of solar PV products in the market. This paper goes through the process of selection of equipment, technical training of the lab officers and discuss the impact such an initiative has had over the last six months since its inception and more importantly will have in the maturing of the PV industry in East Africa. Key words: Solar energy, PV testing, Market penetration in Africa, Solar Home Systems