Extracting 250 thousand tons of salt from its basins every year, Kenya is one of the leading salt producers in East Africa. Kenya-based companies have managed to reduce their carbon footprints by 25 percent, thanks to their cooperation with Japan.

One of these companies, Krystalline Salt, works with one of Kenya’s largest industrial solar systems. This solar power plant, funded by Japan, provides 1.6-gigawatt hours of clean electricity per year. This makes it possible for the company to overcome the instability of local network supply.

The ecological solution to power cuts

Emphasizing that the biggest problem of the company is energy instability, Dinesh Shikotra, General Manager of Krystalline Salt, said, “We can experience up to five power outages a day, which hinders our production. As a result, we cannot meet the demand”. said

The instability of the grid was forcing the company to invest in polluting and expensive generators until 2016 when the solar power plant was built.

However, Shikotra stated that thanks to Japan, they managed to overcome this problem:

“Using solar energy was actually our dream. We learned about the agreement with the Kenyan and Japanese Governments on the Joint Credit Mechanism. Working closely with them, we were able to get a grant to install this magnificent solar plant here.”

The company’s production capacity has increased

The Joint Credit Mechanism, bilateral cooperation between Africa and 17 other developing countries, is a carbon market mechanism launched in 2013 under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. It enables Japan to share technologies and resources that facilitate zero carbon emissions worldwide.

The Krystalline Salt solar power plant has enabled the company to increase its production capacity and save on its electricity bill. Some of these savings were invested in social activities such as giving scholarships to students.

Shikotra spoke about the benefits of solar energy:

“Since the establishment of this power plant in 2016, we have saved about 5,000 tons of carbon emissions. We have created more jobs for the local people here, and that has been really positive growth for us.”