Biomass Use In Kenya

1
Biomass Use In Kenya

• Policy Considerations
• Dr. Dominic Walubengo

2
Acknowledgements

• This presentation is extracted from a paper by
  Dr. Fridah Mugo and Dr. Evans Kituyi

3
Definition

• In this presentation, biomass energy refers to
  charcoal, firewood and agricultural residues.

4
Wood a rural fuel

• Firewood is mainly a rural fuel with over 90 of
  the rural population dependent on it.

5
Charcoal an urban fuel

• Charcoal is mainly an urban fuel, with over 50
  of the urban population using it.
• However the urban slum population is to firewood.
  Laini Saba / Kibera residents access firewood
  from Ngong forest

6
Closing forests does not help

• Closing forests does not help. All it does is
  make charcoal and firewood more expensive, as the
  sellers will now require police escorts and other
  means to get the fuel to the consumers.

7
Most important source of energy

• In 1980, biomass energy provided close to 77 of
  Kenyas national energy requirements (The Beijer
  Institute) petroleum fuels provided about 20
  and electricity 1.2. respectively.

8
Hostile Environment

• The biomass energy sector is hostile to
  entrepreneurs. Thuiya Enterprises Ltd., has given
  up on the charcoal trade. One can simply not move
  charcoal, even if bought from a private
  enterprise.

9
Lack of financial appeal

• Biomass energy lacks financial appeal, has
  unreliable statistics and people in high
  positions do not understand the roles played by
  this source of energy in the social, economic,
  and environmental sectors of the society.

10
Poor Peoples fuel

• Biomass is seen as poor peoples source of
  energy. The rich only use charcoal for roasting
  meat during parties, and wood in their fireplaces
  to warm themselves during the cold months of June
  and July.

11
Sources of biomass supply

• Communal forests and woodlands, government
  plantations, trees around fields, along roadsides
  and in homesteads. Biomass energy is increasingly
  provided from private smallholder lands and farm
  woodlots.

12
Wood supply deficit

• In 1980 the Beijer Institute estimated that by
  the Year 2000, Kenya would have a wood supply
  deficit of 32.61 million tons. With the recent
  massive forest excisions this may not be far off
  the mark.

13
Consumers of Biomass Energy

• Rural households wood
• Urban households- charcoal
• Institutions schools / colleges, hospitals,
  (mostly wood)
• Industries tea, bakeries, brick making, sugar
  (mostly bagasse and wood), tobacco (mostly wood)

14
Stakeholder participation (1)

• The Ministry of Energy says that biomass energy
  policies have been formulated. However,
  personally, I have yet to see a copy.  

15
Stakeholder participation (2)

• The ministry should share these policies with
  stakeholders. We need to read these policies and
  comment on them. Stakeholders have participated
  in the sugar debate, the forest debate, and in
  the water debate. Why not in the energy debate?

16
Poor institutional arrangements

• The present institutional arrangements are not
  adequate to facilitate sustainable development of
  biomass energy. There in inadequate information
  for planning and policy formulation, limited
  financial and human resources and institutional
  capacity.

17
Economic benefits

•  
• Fuel-wood and charcoal production alone can
  employ over 300,000 people.
• Efficient utilization of the resource can save
  Ksh. 57 billion annually. Production of household
  stoves has a business potential of Ksh.6 billion.

18
Environmental Benefits

• The environmental benefits of efficient use of
  biomass energy are many. Our woodlands and
  forests will not be under threat. Carbon sinks
  will not be destroyed. Biological diversity will
  not be threatened.

19
Progress in Biomass Energy

•  
• This can be divided into two categories supply
  side and demand side

20
Supply Side

• Tree planting on farms and agroforestry were
  quite popular in the 1980s. Now, we do not even
  have credible tree nurseries. As for
  afforestation and forest regeneration, the
  excisions speak for themselves. We do not have
  plantations dedicated to the production of
  fuel-wood or charcoal.

21
Demand Side

• Good progress has been made on the demand side.
  Efficient technologies have been introduced. New
  forms of biomass fuels have emerged for example
  kahawa charcoal, char-dust, and briquettes.

22
Biomass Energy Technologies

• Biomass energy technologies available in Kenya
  include improved household stoves, improved
  institutional stoves, efficient charcoal making
  kilns and efficient bakeries

23
Charcoal stoves in Kenya

• Two types in use in Kenya the Kenya Ceramic Jiko
  (KCJ), efficiency of 30-35 the Sigiri
  (traditional metal) stove with an efficiency of
  15-20..

24
Institutional stoves

• Improved institutional stoves have got a positive
  impact on the consumption of wood by
  institutions a school which needs three lorries
  of wood per term, would need only one lorry if
  they converted from the open fire to improved
  institutional stoves

25
Charcoal use

• In 1980, the Beijer Institute estimated that 0.7
  million tons of charcoal was consumed in Kenya.
  Now in 2002, my estimate is that charcoal
  consumption in Kenya is approaching 2 million
  tons per year.

26
Some questions

• Is charcoal making and transportation illegal or
  is it not? Why is such a useful fuel so difficult
  to transport from the production sites to the
  consumption centers? Why is the use of charcoal
  not illegal? Why are our kitchens not constructed
  to use of charcoal?

27
Charcoal kilns

• Using a traditional charcoal kiln, every ton of
  charcoal produced depletes about 0.1 hectares of
  woodlands. An efficient kiln would need about
  0.05 ha. for every ton of charcoal produced.

28
Where is our attention?

• Our current energy policy pays more attention to
  petroleum and electricity than to any other
  sources of energy. These two are seen as energy
  that will drive the country to industrialization.

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Electricity for all?

• We shall not in the next 200 years provide
  electricity to all those who want it. We shall
  not be able to provide LPG to all those who want
  it. Therefore, we should pay attention to biomass
  energy and give it more prominence and more
  funding.

30
Who should control biomass?

• Most of our biomass energy comes from forests and
  woodlands in the form of wood or charcoal. The
  new forests bill 2000 acknowledges that forests
  are the main source of domestic fuel wood for the
  Kenyan people.

31
Forest bill and firewood

• The forest bill only describes charcoal and
  fuel-wood as a forest produce, its definition
  of fuel-wood any freshly cut or dry parts of
  trees, shrubs or refuse wood generally meant for
  burning, but does not include straight timber
  logs or poles of any kind.
•  

32
Recommendations

• The Ministry of Energy was established in 1979.
  Apart from the Kenya Renewable Energy Development
  Project (KRDP) of the mid 1980s, what other
  biomass energy initiatives has the Ministry
  promoted?  

33
A new Institution?

• Kenya needs a serious institution that will deal
  solely with biomass energy issues. The majority
  of the Kenyan voters and tax payers depend on it.
  This is a legitimate demand. This body could be
  placed in the Ministry of Energy, or that in
  charge of Rural Development, or environment.

34
A new body in charge of biomass

• The biomass energy body would have the following
  duties facilitating the collection of data,
  issuing of licenses, labeling wood and charcoal,
  setting standards, monitoring the flow of
  charcoal and wood from production to consumption
  centers

35
A new body

• This body would increase and legitimize
  employment in the biomass energy sector. It would
  also ensure that the woodlands of Kajiado,
  Mwingi, Kitui and Machakos which supply Nairobi
  with charcoal are not mined, but given a chance
  to regenerate, or even replanted with the
  appropriate species to allow the charcoal trade
  to thrive.

36
Thank you

• Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen for your attention