Kenya’s first solar powered cell phone

SAFARICOM in conjunction with a a leading global provider of telecom equipment and network solutions in China,  jointly launched the first solar-powered mobile phone in Kenya.

Simu ya Solar is manufactured from recycled materials and the phone has a built-in solar panel that charges the phone using the sun’s rays.

The hope is to help residents who have no easy access to electricity.  It will retail at about US$39.

Source: China Daily

Kenya reaps the wind

Engineers installing wind turbines at Ngong Hills (from The Daily Nation)

Sources of this article:  globalpost/The Daily Nation

Kenya has set a goal of producing 2000 megawatts of electricity within the next 3 years.   Part of the plan is to exploit greener or renewable forms of energy.   Kenya obtains more than 75 per cent of its 1,200MW of power from hydro.  The country’s only existing source of renewable energy is geothermal power, which has not been fully exploited.

The United Nations says Kenya has the capacity to generate more than 3,000MW of electricity if it tapped into wind energy in its vast northern districts.  The UN report says that Egypt, another African country,  draws upto 7,520 MW of its energy from wind-power projects while Mexico gets 5,000MW. The UN says Kenya has adequate wind to generate energy for both export and domestic use.

KENGEN, an electricity generating company partly owned by the Kenyan government,  has just installed 6 giant wind turbines in Ngong Hills with a view to harnesing this energy source.  The potential is there for 11 more wind farms to be established elsewhere in the country.