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Nairobi Star (Nairobi) - Jesse Mwangi - 17 August 2011
Thousands of small scale farmers nationwide are set to benefit from installation of low cost biogas units.
The Kenya Agriculture Research Institute which is the initiator the project said it has already installed 3,000 units in Murang'a, Kirinyaga, Kisii, Embu, Kiambu, and Nyandarua among others. Unlike the conventional biogas units which cost approximately Sh100,000, the plastic digester would cost the farmer Sh10,000.
According to Kari Embu station researcher Erastus Kiruiro said that the idea came when he realized the massive destruction being caused on the forest by human activities as they look for firewood and charcoal for cooking. "We have established that 80 percent of rural dwellers depend on fire wood for cooking and this has highly contributed to destruction of forests causing intensive environmental degradation, this biogas project is thus a better alternative," said Kiruiro.
Estate agency firm Knight Frank claims that rural estates and farms in the UK could bring in extra income in the tens of thousands if they take advantage of the renewable energy feed-in tariff. In its latest publication, Rural Report Knight Frank created a hypothetical renewable energy farm utilizing all forms of renewable energy as a means of generating revenue through the feed-in tariff calculating the cash that could be generated from wind, solar, hydro and anaerobic digestion.
The report found that if complete grid-connectivity were achieved, the following incomes could be generated:
The total income for these renewable projects would be an impressive 916,000 with a potential of 18.5m to be made over the project's lifetime.
The potential for landowners to benefit from feed-in tariff legislation in the UK is enormous with the potential not only to receive tariff payments but also to significantly reduce overheads by using the energy produced on the land.
The Knight Frank report explains the mechanism stating,
"Feed-in tariffs were introduced in the dying days of the Labour government and were designed to encourage people to create their own renewable electricity.
An index-linked payment guaranteed for up to 25 years is made for each unit of electricity produced even if it used by the generator for their own consumption. The tariff varies depending on how the energy is being generated and the scale of the scheme".
Although the hypothetical estate set out in the Rural Report gives the absolute optimal conditions for generating revenue from renewable energy, it nevertheless highlights the potential to make money though renewable energy. With project lifetimes of 25 years and revenues protected by government legislation, landowners are catching on to the fact that there is real money to be made from investing in renewable installations.
Kevin Langley is a leading knowledge in the Solar Investment and Renewable Energy world. Having worked with the subject for many years, he is fast becoming an expert on green energy and investments in green stocks.
He writes for many blogs and runs a range of Solar websites. He has a keen interest in green renewable energy and spends most of this writing time focusing on this subject.
