Representatives from the British government joined speakers from Barclays Bank this month at a Renewable Energy Conference in Nairobi to talk about plans to stimulate British investment in Kenya's growing green energy sector.

Over one hundred delegates from a mix of British and Kenyan businesses attended the conference, which was hosted by the British Commission with Barclays Bank of Kenya. The focus was on creating a strong development pipeline of investments in low-carbon projects in order to hasten Kenya's adoption of affordable green energy.

Nic Hailey, the Commissioner to Kenya, said that both countries were moving fast in their development of clean energies, fresh innovation in sustainable business and green power. He said that Kenya's renewable energy sector was already one of the most active in Africa and spoke of Britain's leading global position in a number of sectors in which Kenya is currently experiencing high demand.

This will offer exciting opportunities for the UK and Kenya to work together on renewable energy projects, seeking to bring clean and sustainable power to Kenya and help to further the country's economic growth and support infrastructure development.

Both parties have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding to drive the new collaboration forward, which will see Ksh 70 billion being invested in Kenya by the UK in order to drive forward new strategic power initiatives. British investors are hoping to see an attractive return, and Kenya will see the myriad benefits of an increasingly sustainable and low-carbon economy.

Although Kenya has experienced high growth in its energy sector over the past decade, bringing 576MW of fresh capacity online since 2013, it still needs significant investment to reach its full scale. As part of this, the Kenyan national grid will need investment to become more robust.