Solar Cells Info

by Kui Kinyanjui
Business Daily (Nairobi) / 26 February 2008
Source: AllAfrica.com
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802260953.html

Investors from China are expected in Nairobi next week to deliberate the fate of a Sh9 billion solar energy factory whose construction has been thrown into doubt by the political uncertainty in the country.  The joint initiative between a Kenyan partner and a Chinese solar panel manufacturer was supposed to have seen the completion of a local solar panel factory on Mombasa Road in Nairobi by the end of the month.

The venture, which would link Kenyan company Electrogen with Chinese firm Beijing Tianpu Xianxing Enterprises to form a new company known as Pan African Technologies, planned to locally manufacture and distribute solar panels for the regional market.

Following the outbreak of country-wide violence that has seen more than 1,000 people killed over disputed election results, the pricey project has missed several key deadlines that would have seen it start operations by the end of next month. Construction of the solar panel plant had been scheduled to start in October last year.

But Kenyan investor Electrogen remains upbeat that construction would start as soon as next week, with investors setting a new completion date of December.  “We shall be having a strategic meeting with the investors in the coming week to strategize on the way forward,” said Michael Munyao, the Electrogen Technologies executive director.

“The project has been suspended until the middle of this year due to the election violence. I can confirm that it is still on,” he said.  It is expected that the project would create at least 200 jobs locally and see the inclusion of a number of expatriate Chinese technicians to assist in training and the launching of the project.

Under the agreement between the two firms, Beijing Tianpu Xianxing which owns 70 per cent of the company was said to be raising Sh6 billion for the venture from Chinese banks, while its local partner was expected to supply the remainder of the equity mainly in the form of land, three acres of which had already been procured along Mombasa Road.

Kenya is said to be a lucrative market for solar panels, as the country receives nearly 3,000 million free megawatts of power from the sun every day. Ministry of Energy experts says if just 10 per cent of that figure is converted to power on the national grid, the country would be oversupplied with electricity by over 25 times.

In the 1990s, high demand for solar electricity solutions compelled several foreign solar power firms to invest in the country. Since then, following dwindling sales, just a handful are now operational after several, mostly Western partners pulled out of partnerships due to high margins and low sales.

Chinese investors have taken up the slack in the solar market offering cheaper products that use new technologies. Electrogen said they hoped to cash in on a wave of new interest in solar power by offering panels costing a fraction of the price of models currently seen in the market.

“The key differentiation between us and other suppliers of solar panels in the market was that we were going to actually manufacture them here. This would have brought the costs for end-users down by nearly 70 per cent,” said Mr Munyao. A one meter square solar panel presently costs Sh32,500, implying the new plant would have seen this cost fall to about Sh5,000.

The present prices would be higher but value added tax on solar panels and accessories were removed in last year’s budget as the country seeks to promote alternative energy sources.  Key service providers- including mobile phone companies, schools and hospitals – in remote areas unserved by the national power grid have resorted to solar energy .