Adoption of green energy technologies in selected peri-urban and rural areas of Makueni and Machakos counties, Kenya

Abstract

Many peri-urban and rural households use traditional stoves which have low energy use efficiency leading to wasteful use of woodfuel, increase in indoor air pollution and putting more pressure on biomass sources. Energy saving devices have been introduced which are environmentally friendly and economical. The main objective of this study was to assess levels of adoption of green energy technologies in selected peri-urban and rural areas of Makueni and Machakos Counties, Multistage sampling technique was used whereby; locations and sub-locations were selected purposefully. Households from four sub-locations were chosen using simple random sampling. A total of 214 households in the four selected study areas were interviewed. The study used questionnaires and interview schedules for data collection. The collected data was coded and entered into the computer for analysis using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and statistics and data software (STATA) presented using tables. Utilization of metal charcoal energy device was higher than that of other charcoal devices in Unoa area (63.1%). Family size had a significant effect on use of LPG (χ2 = 22.010, P = 0.001) and electric energy technology (χ2 = 20.482, p = 0.002). The study results on the prediction of future charcoal energy devices adoption showed that in the next 30 years’ majority of the households will still prefer Kenya ceramic charcoal stoves to the maendeleo charcoal stoves. The outcome of the research is useful to many stakeholders including the government, Ministries of Agriculture and Energy, Environmentalists, Market Suppliers of green energy devices and Researchers.