Green energy has overtaken any other conversation currently at play on the global stage to be the center of debate against the backdrop of ravaging effects of climate change.
Kenya in particular is not left out of the debate even as the county readies to take a leap of faith into the not so chartered water of primarily converting to green energy in a spirited attempt to retire the use of fossil fuels in the country. Kenya is playing host to the biggest African energy forum, a symposium that brings on board leading tech as well as energy companies across the continent of Africa and beyond.
We caught up with Ahmed Mulla, the deputy Chief Executive Officer for Infinity power. His company which has its primary base in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates is one of the companies that has scaled up efforts to penetrate the Kenyan power market. This after president William Ruto opened doors for investors in the green energy sector to help with the realization of a greener Kenya.
“We have the ambitions and aspirations to be the number one company to deliver sustainable and affordable renewable power. We have a clear mandate from Dr Sultan, to deploy clean energy in Africa to the support the drive to net-zero, whether its wind or solar to ensure that we are maximizing the potential of delivering the cheapest electricity to the African market,“ observes an optimistic Mulla.
The company which is a joint venture platform with Masdar, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company – whose chairman is COP28 President-Designate, Dr Sultan Al Jaber – and Infinity Energy has the largest capacity of renewable energy in the continent of Africa totaling to 1.3 gigawatts of clean energy across its 25 projects in various African countries.
This equates to a reduction of more than 3 million tons of CO2 emissions per year using conventional power generation with current projects located in Egypt, South Africa, Senegal and Ghana. Infinity Power aims to expand its operations in markets across all 54 African countries, providing electricity to all locations in Africa.
“We have the ambitions and aspirations to be the number one company to deliver sustainable and affordable renewable power. We have a clear mandate to deploy clean energy in Africa whether its wind or solar to ensure that we are maximizing the potential of delivering the cheapest electricity to the African market,“ observes an optimistic Mulla.
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Plan for Kenya While observing that its time for the African continent to rise up and embrace green energy, Mulla observes the need of providing locals with the technical know-how and good corporate social responsibilities deployed with the local communities Infinity power in a nutshell is an African pure power play entity.
“We plan to grow and growth is not driven by our ambitions to be the largest but also to serve. We are here to serve the continent. We are here to serve the people of Kenya. We can only do that with the support of the government,“ adds Mulla.
He observes that Kenya is one of the desirable markets in the African continent for establishing green energy reserves adding that the company is a great believer in local partnerships. Infinity Power’s deputy CEO says they are looking for partners with stronger outlook and a strong track record of delivery to drive their agendas in the country.
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“Working on our own we cannot work quickly. We need to have partners who can help us in speaking the same language in understanding that the regulations and challenges locally are shared with us to solve the Kenyan power problem,“ observes Ahmed.
Kenya’s power outlook
Kenya’s relies on renewables for roughly 90 per cent of its power needs and the aim of lifting this to 100 per cent by 2030 is helping to attract climate change mitigation financing from global sources. Demand for green energy is on a steady rise in the county.
The latest data from the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) show that electricity available for distribution rose by 4.5 per cent to 12,700 GWh in 2022, including a near 10 per cent rise in geothermal (to 5,520 GWh) and an 8 per cent rise in wind (to 2,140 GWh), giving them respective shares of 45 per cent and 17 per cent. Solar power’s share is smaller, at 3 per cent in 2022, but output more than doubled from a year earlier. This presents a rich front for investments in the green energy sector.
