No more diesel, no more dark dorms: a Kenyan boarding school switches on its own sun

A boarding school cannot switch off at sunset. At Lukenya Schools in Athi River, Machakos, when the grid failed — and vandalised lines made failures common — the diesel generator roared, the bills mounted, and sometimes freezer food had to be served early before it spoiled. This month the school commissioned its own way out: a 40.92-kilowatt solar array with an 80-kilowatt-hour battery, big enough, its director Mutheu Kasanga hopes, 'to move completely out of the grid.' The savings are earmarked for learning spaces. Founder Kasanga Mulwa, who started the school 34 years ago, made the generational point: bringing grid power to this rural site in the 1990s cost many millions more than the solar plant cost today. The sun over Machakos was always there; the economics finally caught up.

SDG 7 · Affordable and clean energy — Mechanism: infrastructure build