Site Visits

The 2019 Forum offered participants a selection of site visits showcasing innovative clean cooking solutions in and around the Nairobi area. The visits took place on Thursday, November 7, and included transport, refreshments, and a box lunch. Further details can be found below.

Ethanol for Cooking: KOKO Networks

Minimum participants: 20

Maximum participants: 50

Estimated trip time: 4.5 hours

Description from the company: KOKO Networks is an international technology company and a global leader in clean ethanol cooking fuel and cooking products. The company builds and deploys dense networks of cloud-connected “KOKO Points” installed inside local shops, which serve as clean fuel ATMs and in-store digital media playing devices. KOKO also manufactures modern, high-power ethanol stoves at its factory in Gujarat, India.

Last year, KOKO partnered with Vivo Energy Kenya for the supply of bioethanol to KOKO Points using KOKO’s hardware and software technologies, while KOKO launched its Nairobi Network of 700 Agents in mid-2019.

Participants will tour KOKO’s Technology Production Facility in Nairobi to see how the network is managed, including demonstrations of KOKO Points and KOKO Cookers. For more information on the facility, click here.

Proposed itinerary:

  • 08:00 – Depart from hotel
  • 09:00 – Arrive at KOKO facility (25 km)
  • 11:00 – Depart from KOKO facility
  • 12:30 – Arrive at hotel

Cooking with Electricity: A Culinary Tour of a Transformative Opportunity

Minimum participants: 10

Maximum participants: 100

Estimated trip time: 4 hours

Description from the company: This trip will take you on a culinary tour of Kenya and the opportunities and challenges for cooking popular Kenyan foods with electricity. It brings to life the recently published Kenya eCookBook, which explored the trade-offs between energy, time and money across the popular fuels and appliances in Kenya today. The cookbook revealed the huge opportunity for cooking ‘heavy foods’ such as beans in ultra-efficient Electric Pressure Cookers, which can save over 50% on time and 85% on cost versus, LPG, charcoal or electric hotplates.

This visit will take place at Kenya Power’s recently refurbished model kitchen at Electricity House in Nairobi’s Central Business District. It will be hosted by the organizations Pika na Power (cook with electricity) and Jikoni Magic (magic in the kitchen), who will be demonstrating several popular Kenyan dishes on a range of electric cooking appliances, with live monitoring and commentary on electricity consumption and expenditures as they cook. Participants will be able to sample the dishes and take home a copy of the eCookBook.

The session will also present insights from the MECS cooking diary studies, which followed 80 households in four countries for six weeks to understand how they cook and how they might cook with electricity. This will be followed by an open discussion, inviting participants to share how applicable these findings are to their country and what challenges still need to be addressed. The session will conclude with presentations from MECS challenge fund winners on how they plan to enable cooking with electricity beyond the limits of Kenya Power and other national utilities grids.

Kenya Power is the nation’s electrical utility. With over six million customers, a predominantly renewable grid with surplus power now available, they are looking to stimulate demand. Pika na Power is Kenya Power’s flagship electric cooking campaign, designed to show customers just how quick, easy and affordable cooking with electricity is. To date, this has included TV series, social media campaigns, and live cooking classes.

Jikoni Magic is a Kenyan social media brand championing soulful Kenyan food by sharing simple recipes for classic Kenyan dishes that anybody can make at home. Supported by the MECS programme, Jikoni Magic is just beginning a smart cooking campaign designed to empower everyday Kenyan cooks to save time and money in the kitchen by adopting energy-efficient appliances and practices.

Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) is a UK Aid (DfID) funded research and innovation programme designed to enable people cooking with biomass to transition to modern energy for cooking. Central to the MECS programme is changing the narrative in the clean cooking and electrification sectors, by showing how cooking with electricity in grid-connected and off-grid regions can simultaneously enable access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern electricity and clean cooking for all.

Proposed itinerary:

  • 08:30 – Depart from hotel
  • 09:00 – Arrive at KPLC facility (3 km)
  • 12:00 – Depart from KPLC facility
  • 12:30 – Arrive at hotel

Biomass Stoves Manufacturing: BURN Manufacturing

Minimum participants: 20

Maximum participants: 90

Estimated trip time: 4.5 hours

Description from the company: BURN Manufacturing is based 30 minutes north of Nairobi. It manufactures, designs, produces, and distributes low-cost, high-quality efficient cookstoves. BURN is one of the leading modern cookstove companies which manufactures all its products locally in its state-of-the-art cookstove manufacturing facility. 

Since 2013, BURN has sold over 650,000+ “Best in Class” biomass stoves in East Africa. These stoves have helped three million beneficiaries save USD 215 million in fuel expenditures and 2.6 million tons of wood while reducing indoor air pollution by 65-81%. BURN currently sells about 30,000 stoves per month and is on track to reach 40,000 stoves per month over the next three months. BURN is currently conducting its first significant capital raise to bring its biomass cookstoves – as well as a new range of electric, hybrid, and liquid fuel stoves – to Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.

See BURN’s video for more details.  

Proposed itinerary:

  • 08:00 – Depart from hotel
  • 09:00 – Arrive at factory (30 km)
  • 11:00 – Depart from factory
  • 12:30 – Arrive at hotel

Biogas for Cooking: Home Visits

Minimum participants: 20

Maximum participants: 90

Estimated trip time: 6 hours

Description from the company: The Kenya Biogas Program (KBP) is the national implementing entity for the Africa Biogas Partnership Program (ABPP), which covers five countries. The ABPP is a partnership between SNV, Hivos, and the Government of the Netherlands. The goal is to stimulate a commercially viable domestic biogas sector, which would result in biogas becoming a leading source of energy for households in Kenya. The program works with an ecosystem of service providers qualified to ensure every biodigester client gets a fulfilling experience with their investment.

Over the last eight years, the KBP has supported the installation of over 21,000 different designs of household biodigesters. During the site visits, attendees will have an opportunity to learn more about the different biogas designs and technologies, such as Home Biogas, Sistema Bio, Takamoto Biogas, Flexi Biogas, and Fixed Dome digesters. The size of biodigesters ranges from 4m3 to 12 m3 with respective prices ranging from USD 1,000 to USD 55,000 for a complete functional system.

The Kenya Biogas Program has modelled a marketing approach called the Biogas Marketing Hub Model, which aims to build effective marketing and business development structure for the biogas sector. The model constitutes concentrating bio-digester information, training, sales, extension, and marketing efforts around organized, target markets that already have common interest or service for farming households. Currently, there are 26 Hubs in Kenya around dairy, coffee, and tea farmer cooperatives and savings and credit cooperatives.

The KBP is the 2019 national Energy Globe award winner for Kenya. The program has managed to successfully transition the subsector market from being backed by subsidy to zero subsidy.

Proposed itinerary:

  • 08:00 – Depart from hotel
  • 09:30 – Arrive at site (60 km)
  • 12:30 – Depart from site
  • 14:00 – Arrive at hotel

LPG Cylinder Manufacturing and Refilling: Proto Energy

Minimum participants: 20

Maximum participants: 90

Estimated trip time: 6 hours

Description from the company: Proto Energy is the largest dedicated bulk and cylinder manufacturing/re-filling LPG company in Kenya, initially founded to address the unmet demand for LPG in both the domestic and industrial sectors. With the global push for industries to engage new avenues of energy production, Proto Energy has since focused its expertise to provide industries with cleaner sources of energy while achieving higher efficiency. The company is focused on quality, affordability, and reliability while adhering to the highest LPG safety standards.

Proto Energy has grown exponentially from 49 employees at the beginning of 2017 to a workforce of 473 employees by the end of July 2018. Of its total manufacturing workforce by close of December 2017, only 16% were women, but the company plans to grow this percentage by encouraging more women to take up careers in the engineering field by partnering with local tertiary institutions. In less than a year, Proto Energy has provided direct employment to more than 400 youth from across the country and the local community.

Production capacity

Proto Energy’s plan is to increase its cylinder manufacturing capacity from 6,000 currently to 15,000 pieces per day by December 2019. It has managed to make LPG available and affordable (30% price reduction) to many households across the country, especially in the rural areas, and is opening new routes daily, which in turn has promoted the use of LPG as a source of energy other than traditional charcoal and firewood.

Big Four Agenda

In line with the Kenyan government’s current Big Four Agenda, especially regarding the enhancement of the manufacturing sector to grow its GDP from 9.2% to 20% by 2022, Proto Energy Ltd. is planning to open six more filling plants by the end of 2019.

Proposed itinerary:

  • 08:00 – Depart from hotel
  • 10:00 – Arrive at factory (50 km)
  • 12:30 – Depart from factory
  • 14:00 – Arrive at hotel