Solar Power – Project Jua Phase II

OVO Foundation has increased its investment in Project Jua, an energy access project implemented by Energy 4 Impact & Sollatek Kenya that will benefit 300,000 people across 300 sites in 3 years. Solar energy will power educational equipment in schools and lighting in hospitals in some of Kenya’s poorest and hardest-to-reach areas, improving young people’s education and health.
Project Jua is supporting the Kenyan Government’s overall electrification programme and helping the country leapfrog the need to power their lives from centralised polluting fossil
fuel plants through innovative off-grid solutions.
Project Jua builds on its 2017 pilot, in which Energy 4 Impact, & Sollatek Kenya with funding from the OVO Foundation, installed 20 solar systems in two of the poorest counties in Kenya: Turkana and Kilifi. The success of this pilot demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of delivering off-grid solar and storage on a relatively small scale in the development sector.

Project Jua is now expanding to five counties where electrification is far below the national average of 56%, including:

Turkana (2.4%), Kwale (10.6%), Taita-Taveta (15%), Kilifi (16.7%), Isiolo (18.5%).

For millions of people without access to electricity, electrification has brought life-changing benefits, leading to improved education outcomes, a safer environment for children to study at nighttime, and a reliable electricity supply for vaccines and medical equipment.

“We’re thrilled to continue supporting the OVO Foundation’s ambitions to expand energy access in Kenya. This initiative complements the government’s electrification efforts by targeting communities where grid-based solutions are not viable because of their remoteness and high investment cost. We owe the success of the pilot to the overwhelming support by county governments and to the effective partnership with the local communities, schools, health clinics, and Sollatek, the solar equipment supplier.
The benefits of a scaled-up programme will extend to the poorest and most deprived people of Kenya.” – Godfrey Sanga, Energy 4 Impact’s Director, East Africa