Reaching the Marginalized with Clean Cooking: The Kenya Off Grid Solar Access Project Clean Cooking Sub Component
Kenya’s national targets of achieving universal access to electricity by 2022 and universal access to modern cooking energy services by 2030 are providing the impetus to close the energy access gap by providing electricity and clean cooking services to remote, low density, and traditionally underserved areas of the country. It is in line with this that the Ministry of Energy is implementing the Kenya off Grid Solar Access Project – KOSAP. The clean cooking sub component of this project aims at transforming the cookstove market in the underserved counties from a focus on low-efficiency baseline stoves (Tiers 0 -2) to cleaner, higher-efficiency stoves (Tiers 3-4). To accomplish this objective, activities will be focused on the market for cleaner household cooking appliances. This sub component will pilot this approach in 5 underserved counties in the Northwest of Kenya and will replicate successful elements of this pilot in three other underserved counties. This will be achieved by incentivizing private sector to sell the stoves and fuels through a Results Based Finance (RBF) facility. A call for proposals has been issued to cookstove suppliers to develop business plans and commit to selling a large number of stoves in the targeted counties. The RBF facility will provide winning service providers with financial support to enable them to market their stoves locally within the target counties, transport them to the target communities in number and sell them to willing buyers in communities. This session will present the project approach and progress to date.