The government will spend Sh10.5 billion during the current financial year on assisting its various institutions to shift to the use of biogas for cooking.
The allocation is part of a wider programme to discourage the use of charcoal and fuel wood as a major source of energy.
The sum will be spent on conducting research on simple and affordable technologies to build biogas systems.
This was announced here on 18th July 2022 by Energy minister January Makamba during his visit to a school where a biogas system had been installed.
The system at the school owned by Queen of Family School under the Catholic Church, Kahama Archdiocese, was installed by the Rural Energy Agency (REA) way back in 2012.
The minister said the government was keen to promote clean and renewable energy such as biogas in order to contain tree felling for fuel wood and charcoal.
Biogas is produced when organic matter, such as food or animal waste, is broken down by microorganisms in the absence of oxygen.
It can be used for combined heat and power (CHP) operations. It can also be turned into electricity using a combustion engine, fuel cell, or gas turbine, with the resulting electricity being used on-site or sold onto the electric grid.
Mr Makamba said although the biogas systems had been used for cooking for years, more research was needed on the appropriate systems that can deliver.
Another option for the government, he said, was distributing cooking gas cylinders to poor households and small scale women traders to discourage them from using charcoal for fuel.
The minister hinted that the government was also keen to address matters pertaining to taxation of biogas equipment so that many households can afford them.
He added that promotion of biogas energy use would initially target institutions with large workforce and later to those which seek such services.
He added that the ministry through REA and other outlets has funds allocated for support of the institutions which need to have biogas equipment installed at their premises.
Mr Makamba commended the management of Queen of Family School for the innovation, noting that the government was ready to render the necessary support in the drive.
School manager Ezekiel Mafuru noted that the performance of the young learners there had improved because of reliability of the energy supply.
