Our project locations in Kenya
Overview of projects
Mwangaza in collaboration with Vlaams Brabant
Context
Although 70% of Kenyans have access to electricity, growth has stagnated in recent years. Additionally, electrification rates do not necessarily indicate the reliability, affordability, and sustainability of electricity. In reality, many Kenyans, especially those in rural areas, still lack access to quality electricity. This results in a persistent dependence on fossil fuels, low electricity usage, and consequently limited opportunities for economic progress.
Access to quality electricity is also a challenge in Baricho, a village near Mount Kenya. Economic growth is limited here too, as people are reluctant to invest in electrical equipment due to uncertainty over the electricity supply.
With the construction of the Mwangaza hydropower plant, HydroBox brings light to the community of Baricho. HydroBox not only supplies electricity, but also contributes to sustainable transportation by using e-bikes and providing a budget for businesses to increase their productivity by investing in electric devices.
HydroBox received a grant of 100,000 euros from the province of Vlaams Brabant for the project “Transforming Kenyan rural areas through reliable, sustainable, and affordable electricity.” The project will run until the end of 2023.
The project will have the following impact
- Provide reliable and sustainable access to electricity to 150 households, 6 schools (4000 students), 2 health care centres, and 20-30 small and medium sized businesses
- Stimulate electric mobility by piloting with 4 e-bikes
- Creating 10-20 local jobs
- Reduce 250 tonnes of CO2 per year
Hydrobox supported by the province of Vlaams Brabant
Context
In Kenya, Electricity in the Murang’a county is unreliable or non-existent. This hampers economic and social progress and could be resolved by a stable electricity connection for the local community. This is why we at Hydrobox partnered up with the province of Vlaams Brabant to extend and stabilise our existing Mathioya electricity grid with solar capacity.
Adding solar capacity to our existing Hydro Power Installation allows us to balance production and consumption on the grid.
The extra solar allows for extra production during the day when we have peak demand from local businesses and allows for more production during the dry season when there is more sun. This compensates the loss in capacity from our Hydro Power during the dry season and allows us to serve all of our clients reliably throughout the year with affordable, reliable and clean energy.
The support from Vlaams Brabant allows us to built solar capacity, stabilising our grid and thus being able to connect impact customers on top of the Business clients.
The project will have the following impact
- Provide reliable and sustainable access to electricity to 300 additional households
- 5 additional schools (3600 students)
- 1 additional health care centre
- 3 additional small sized businesses