| dc.description.abstract | Urban centres in developing countries are growing at unprecedented rate. This is attributed to high
population growth being experienced in those nations and more people moving to urban centres and
the desire for those nations to industrialize. These developing countries have abundant and
underutilized natural resources that are backbones of economic growth making them attract foreign
investments across the world. Energy demand on other side is rapidly increasing as more energy is
needed to support urbanization and industrialization. This study was aimed at upscaling rooftop solar
PV in urban centres. It explores on the factors affecting the deployment of the solar PV using Nairobi
City in Kenya as the case study. The objective of the study was to establish the reasons why roof
mounted Solar PV has not been scaling up in urban centres despite the high energy demand being
experienced so far. The study used mixed research design to explore both qualitative and quantitative
characteristics of the target population. Commercial industries and institutions using solar PV within
Nairobi were targeted where a sample of 50 respondents was purposely selected. It was noted that
high initial costs, lack of qualified technicians, bureaucracy delay in application and approval process
and lack of awareness were among the major challenges affecting adoption and scaling up of rooftop
SPV. Most consumers installed rooftop SPV to save on electricity bills. Others like SERC installed
for training purposes and climate change awareness. Recommendations given included introduction of
net metering, online platform to create awareness to help in decision making, data bases to facilitate
tracking of all processes among others. | en_US |
