By 2020, Kenya plans to achieve universal access to electricity, whereby 95% of homes will have access to the power grid. And if the country meets this target, it will have done so in less than half the time that it took the US to achieve the same feat.

According to a Quartz Africa report, Kenya’s electrification rates are among the continent’s fastest, and statistics suggest that the East African nation is well on its way to accomplishing its goal – adding 1.3 million households to the grid in 2016 alone. This has increased the percentage of connected Kenyans to 55% from just 27% in 2013.

Most of Kenya’s energy derives from non-fossil sources. Last year, the country launched the world’s largest geothermal plant at the Olkaria field in the south-western region, where construction of another plant is currently under way and expected to come online within the next two years.

Kenya is also building what is set to be continent’s largest wind farm, which will supplement the grid considerably.

31 January 2017
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