File:Sprong - Greening Kenyan Electricity Generation An innovation system functions approach to the role of the CDM in the adoption of wind energy technologies in Kenya.pdf

English: This study is part of a research project on ‘Greening the African Energy Ladder: The

role of national polices and international aid” carried out in a cooperation between the Dutch Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS), The Netherlands Energy Research Center (ECN) and the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM). The study takes an innovation system functions approach to investigate the dynamics around the adoption of wind energy in Kenya. Seven functions are used to characterize the evolution of adoption dynamics around wind energy in Kenya, these are: entrepreneurial activity, knowledge development and knowledge diffusion, guidance of the search, market formation, resource mobilization, and support of advocacy coalitions. The paper concludes that the trend patterns in the Kenyan wind technological innovation system (WTIS) are generally characterized by an increase in functional activity. The functions knowledge development, knowledge diffusion, market formation and support of advocacy coalitions show a clear increase in functional intensity. Resource mobilization and entrepreneurial activity are lagging behind. The positively developed functions are induced by institutional developments in the energy sector, the early activity of key individuals and developments in information and communication technologies. A lack of managerial skills among actors in the wind energy system, lack of capabilities for renewable energy infrastructure investment among finance institutions and uncertainties about power demand and sovereign guarantees are currently blocking the resource mobilization and entrepreneurial activity functions. Regarding the role of the Clean Development Mechanism in the evolution of the system, the thesis concludes that the CDM has only marginally

influenced the evolution of the Kenyan WTIS.