The effectiveness of feed-in-tariff policy in promoting power generation from renewable energy in Kenya

Feed-in- Tariffs (FIT) policies are used by many developed and developing countries globally as a mechanism to promote renewable energy (RE) development. This study analyses the effectiveness of FIT policy in the deployment of RE, drivers and challenges of the FIT policy in Kenya. In this study, qualitative data analysis adopts a thematic analysis approach whereby common themes are identified. The study reveals that while the policy triggers investment interests, there has been a significant delay in the commercial roll-out of RE projects given the ten-year time lapse following the introduction of the FIT policy. So far, RE generated from FIT projects is very minimal at 10.3 MW against a target of 1551 MW with the majority of the projects being in earlier phases of the process. Therefore, only 0.66% of the target power generation is commercially deployed. Secondly, the study findings show that the key challenges for the FIT policy relate to the unavailability of technical expertise for policy design, and inefficiencies in policy implementation. The main recommendation from this study is that the FIT policy should be revised to address the challenges associated with it, and retained for projects below 10 MW, and the auction mechanism should be introduced for projects above 10 MW.