This research aimed to enrich understanding on the relative successful adoption of Solar Home Systems in Kenya to inform the design of Climate Innovation Centres and policy initiatives that facilitate the transfer and uptake of low carbon technologies in Kenya and other Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The project sought to identify ways in which low carbon technologies can benefit poor people by improving access to modern energy services.

It developed a detailed picture of the full spectrum of actors together with institutional frameworks and events that assisted the uptake of this technology in Kenya. Whilst the project provided insights of relevance to other country and technology contexts, careful attention has been given to the extent to which lessons learned are applicable outside of the context of Kenya and to technologies other than solar home systems.

The project built on the STEPS Centre’s Pathways Approach to bridge relevant insights from academic literature in the fields of both innovation studies and socio-technical transitions.

Project resources and outputs:

• Project summary
• Project website
• Innovation Histories Workshop report
• GMK Show, June 2013, with Kevin Urama of ATPS and Adrian Ely of the STEPS Centre: television interview
• Briefing paper: Energy Pathways in Low Carbon Development
• Briefing paper: The political economy of low carbon energy in Kenya
• Briefing paper: Low carbon energy and development in low-income countries: Policy lessons from a study of the off-grid photovoltaics sector in Kenya
• Working paper: Sustainable energy for whom? Governing pro-poor, low carbon pathways to development: Lessons from solar PV in Kenya
• Working paper: Energy Pathways in Low Carbon Development: from Technology Transfer to Socio-technical Transformation

Project Lead: University of Sussex, UK (including the STEPS Centre, Sussex Energy Group  and Tyndall Centre)

Project Partners: The African Technology Policy Studies Network, Kenya

CDKN Funding: £500,000

Timeframe: Apr 2012 - Mar 2014

Image of studying by solar light courtesy of  EEP, flickr.com