What Kenya can learn from Denmark’s trail blazing of the green energy revolution

Copenhagen residents ride to work. In Denmark most people cycle, which cuts down on greenhouse gas emission. PHOTO | GEOFFREY IRUNGU 

By GEOFFREY IRUNGU, girungu@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Initiatives include putting up a Sh70bn plant to produce 60MW from waste, wind power ventures across the country and funding green energy projects globally.

Heaps of unpleasant garbage lying on every other back yard and alleys have become a common sight around Nairobi and other Kenyan towns.

But to what extent can solid waste become a resource rather than a nuisance for which solutions have to be found in order to make a city comfortably habitable?

Copenhagen, the Danish capital, offers a classic lesson on how Nairobi and other urban centres in Kenya can tame the garbage menace and even open up new ventures such as power generation.

The Danish government is putting up a Sh70 billion ($700 million) plant at Amager Resource Centre in Copenhagen to replace a 46-year old one with a view to incinerating solid waste and producing some 60MW of electricity in the process.

The power expected to be generated at the centre is equivalent to the amount that was expected from Kenya’s collapsed Kinangop wind power project and slightly more than the amount generated by Olkaria-111 geothermal plant in the Rift Valley.

It is a way of ensuring that you not only dispose of the solid waste but also reduce carbon emissions by generating clean energy.

“The old plant has come to the end of its life and we are putting up the new one at a cost of $700 million which will be more efficient and will produce more electricity,” the centre’s chief executive Uller Rottger told journalists during our recent tour.

Those opposed to setting up the facility argue that it would be better to recycle the trash than burn it for power because of resulting emissions.

However, those who support the initiative cite the net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. There is also focus on efficiency such that less waste will be needed to produce power.

The Copenhagen effort is part of a wider European initiative that began in 1999 to reduce emissions through incineration of waste rather than piling it up in landfills.

Architectural marvel

The argument is that the decomposition of landfills would be of greater harm as it releases methane, which is over 20 times more harmful than carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas.

There are now hundreds of waste incineration plants around Europe generating electricity and heat for homes.

The Amager Resource Centre was first put up in 1970 and began with providing heating for homes. It started generating electricity from 1990.

More than a million customers provide garden waste, used construction materials and other kinds of waste every year. Hazardous waste is handled in a manner that ensures it does not pollute the environment.

While it relieves inhabitants and companies of their waste, the centre in turn supplies 140,000 households with heat and electricity.

The new facility, under construction, is an architectural marvel with the top of the building being designed for skiing and restaurants.

But Denmark’s determination to be at the forefront of the green energy revolution is not just confined to the city of Copenhagen. It is modelled as a countrywide push to achieve efficiency and lower emissions.

“We have managed to grow the economy in recent years without increasing emissions,” said Denmark’s Prime Minister Lors Lokke Rasmuseen during the opening session of the Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) conference held in the city.

In Nordborg, on the outskirts of an upcountry municipality called Sonderborg, green energy firm Danfoss Group operates an engineering complex where it set up a solar park in 2013 to generate 2MW of electricity, an effort replicated in its Indian-based factory producing one megawatt.

The company, which has 61 factories in 20 countries, makes products designed to save energy and perform functions ranging from cooling to heating including agricultural and construction machines and speed drives for controlling motors.

Danfoss estimates that up to 50 per cent of energy can be saved with oil-free variable speed compressors for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.

Within the company itself, the target is to use half as much energy as it did in 2007 by 2030 and emit half as much carbon dioxide by the same date.

ProjectZero

“If food losses were avoided, then a third of the food would be saved. If food waste was a country it would be the third largest emitter of emissions after the United States and China,” said Torben Funder-Kristensen, the head of public and industry affairs at Danfoss, while referring to the need for preservation of food to cut down on waste.

Within the same Sonderborg area, the green energy tour headed for a meeting at the local university with the municipality’s deputy mayor Aase Nyegaard.

Ms Nyegaard explained how the town was implementing a multifaceted project, dubbed ProjectZero, geared towards cutting down emissions to zero by 2029 and creating jobs in the process.

She said the majority of the municipality’s homes were being heated by green energy ranging from solar to heat pumps, biofuel and geothermal power while there was massive investment in wind energy.

Forty two per cent of the country’s electrical energy was generated from wind last year. “This idea came from citizens so it is a collaboration between the municipality’s leaders, the private sector and citizens who all realise the need to eliminate emissions. It is also part of efforts being pursued with the European Union to promote green energy solutions,” said Ms Nyegaard.

And it turned out that the Danfoss Foundation, linked to the Danfoss Group, was a key player in starting the project. The municipality has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent since 2007.

One of the most notable things about the project is that it buys waste from households for recycling. It was an interesting sight to see people packing trash in bags and driving it in their cars to the waste buying establishments.

Project Zero managing director Peter Rathje explained how the master plan has been a centre of attraction even to other countries and a good number of its elements were being used in a project in Haiyan city in China.

Viewed against the 3GF meeting, which was discussing how to move from talk to action in terms of alleviating the effects of climate change, the various projects in Denmark have marked out the country as one at the forefront of cutting down emissions.

This year’s 3GF meeting was a follow-up to the Paris climate change agreement that sought to combat emissions and reduce barriers to trade in green energy.

The 3GF was initiated by the Danish government in 2011 in collaboration with several countries including Kenya, China, South Korea and Vietnam.

Many speakers at the conference were of the view that while action required financing, the problem was packaging the projects in a manner that would attract bankers and other financiers.

The Istanbul International Centre for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD), which is linked to the United Nations Development Programme and the Turkish government, said that it had Sh500 billion ($5 billion) for procuring equipment and medicines from organisations that had made significant use of green energy.

As one of its mandates, the IICPSD facilitates procurement of such goods under such programmes as the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

But the question was how to determine which organisations had the highest level of green energy usage.

Experts were of the opinion that an index would need to be developed and each organisation ranked on the basis of their use of green energy so that the IICPSD can finance or guarantee the top ones in terms of procurement of drugs and equipment from them.

In exploring partnerships while moving from talk to action, there was also agreement that many companies — including drug and equipment manufacturers — would require to see a business case for the green energy usage even if they had access to the IICPSD funds.

The Danish Foreign Affairs minister Kristian Jensen said that the state pension fund had been critical in assembling about Sh69 billion (4.5 million Danish kronor) for the Turkana wind power project, which is expected to generate 300MW.

The capacity is 19 per cent of current peak demand in Kenya and 13 per cent of the installed capacity. At the same time, the wind project is expected to replace fuel imports amounting to nearly Sh14 billion.

Mr Jensen said that Danish pension funds were keen on participating in clean energy projects in Kenya and other developing countries.

According to the Financing the Green Transition publication, three pension funds have assets under management totalling about Sh8 trillion.

One of the most notable things about the project is that it buys waste from households for recycling. It was an interesting sight to see people packing trash in bags and driving it in their cars to the waste buying establishments.

Project Zero managing director Peter Rathje explained how the master plan has been a centre of attraction even to other countries and a good number of its elements were being used in a project in Haiyan city in China.

Viewed against the 3GF meeting, which was discussing how to move from talk to action in terms of alleviating the effects of climate change, the various projects in Denmark have marked out the country as one at the forefront of cutting down emissions.

This year’s 3GF meeting was a follow-up to the Paris climate change agreement that sought to combat emissions and reduce barriers to trade in green energy.

The 3GF was initiated by the Danish government in 2011 in collaboration with several countries including Kenya, China, South Korea and Vietnam.

Many speakers at the conference were of the view that while action required financing, the problem was packaging the projects in a manner that would attract bankers and other financiers.

The Istanbul International Centre for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD), which is linked to the United Nations Development Programme and the Turkish government, said that it had Sh500 billion ($5 billion) for procuring equipment and medicines from organisations that had made significant use of green energy.

As one of its mandates, the IICPSD facilitates procurement of such goods under such programmes as the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

But the question was how to determine which organisations had the highest level of green energy usage.

Experts were of the opinion that an index would need to be developed and each organisation ranked on the basis of their use of green energy so that the IICPSD can finance or guarantee the top ones in terms of procurement of drugs and equipment from them.

In exploring partnerships while moving from talk to action, there was also agreement that many companies — including drug and equipment manufacturers — would require to see a business case for the green energy usage even if they had access to the IICPSD funds.

The Danish Foreign Affairs minister Kristian Jensen said that the state pension fund had been critical in assembling about Sh69 billion (4.5 million Danish kronor) for the Turkana wind power project, which is expected to generate 300MW.

The capacity is 19 per cent of current peak demand in Kenya and 13 per cent of the installed capacity. At the same time, the wind project is expected to replace fuel imports amounting to nearly Sh14 billion.

Mr Jensen said that Danish pension funds were keen on participating in clean energy projects in Kenya and other developing countries.

According to the Financing the Green Transition publication, three pension funds have assets under management totalling about Sh8 trillion.

“We stand ready to fund renewables in Africa and other countries. Pension funds are already using small sums to invest in the energy sector,’’ said Mr Jensen.

EKF, a Danish export credit agency, also disclosed that it guarantees finances for global energy renewable businesses with its total guarantees for wind energy alone last year standing at Sh467 billion.

The Danish Climate Investment Fund, a public-private partnership, also revealed that it has some Sh19.5 billion for climate-related investments from both public and private sources intended to finance climate-related projects in developing countries and emerging markets.