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The main energy sources in Kenya are biomass, hydropower and geothermal. The source of biomass fuel includes fuelwood, crop residues and animal waste; woodfuel processed through carbonization; biogas from animal waste processed through fermentation; power alcohol and waste-wood from industries. Woodfuel in 1992 provided about 70% of Kenya's total energy supply. The annual energy consumption in Kenya is about 7 million tonnes of oil equivalent. The main consumers of energy are domestic household, 60%; transport and manufacturing, 13% each; agriculture, 10%; and commercial sector, 6%. Petroleum fuels account for about 20% of the net energy and meets about 86% of the industrial energy demand.

The ability to produce hydropower is sensitive to climate-induced water supply changes as power generation turbines operates within a small range of water level variability. Global warming is likely to increase precipitation in the highlands of Kenya. This is bound to affect the five hydropower generating plants along Tana River which contribute about 78% to the national electricity grid. However, increased exploitation of the geothermal resources at Olkaria, Eburru and Lake Bogoria could alleviate the situation once the targeted output of 1000 MW is achieved. The alternative to this would be increased fossil fuel consumption for electrical power generation from thermal power plants. This would result in increased fossil fuel demand, thus the price of the commodity would shoot-up. This in turn would drain the national foreign exchange reserves, thus affect the whole economic set-up of the country. The bulk of the society under such circumstances may switch to biomass as a source of energy for cooking and heating. This is likely to shift forests and woodland, thus the already marginalised areas such as arid and semi-arid areas would become drier.

The paper carries out a review of the potential energy sources in the country and proposes a country study on the use of renewable sources of energy particularly among the rural population who currently rely heavily on fuelwood as a source of energy. Activities implemented jointly (AIJ) are viewed in terms of improved technology to generate biomass from wastes; solar energy development and improved energy efficiency in all sectors of the economy. AIJ has to seriously look into the introduction of these technologies to the rural population. In line with this, a survey has to be carried out on the cultural settings and attitudes of the involved communities for the success of such projects. The paper finally proposes specific projects for the AIJ undertaking.