Barriers to the adoption of biogas technology: A Kenyan case

Abstract

Generally, households in sub-Saharan Africa countries depend on biomass energy for cooking. In view of its negative impacts, biogas technology emerges as a promising solution. However, in spite of its potential to mitigate these hazards, its adoption faces numerous hurdles that hinder uptake at both individual and systemic levels. The main objective of this study was to investigate the barriers to the adoption of biogas technology in Kenya. Specifically, the study aimed to identify and assess the key criteria and sub-criteria that obstruct biogas adoption, prioritize these barriers using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to determine their relative importance, and validate the model's results. A stratified random sampling technique was employed to select 32 biogas experts from the target groups within the renewable energy sector (N 1 =200), biogas sector (N 2 =200), and government & policy sector (N 3 =100). Data collection was carried out using a structured questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using the AHP, a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) tool, which processed the data through STATA to rank and identify the primary obstacles. The reliability of these assessments was ensured by maintaining an acceptable consistency ratio (CR < 0.1). Validation of results was done based on previous studies. The study categorized the barriers into five main groups: technical, economic, infrastructural, societal-cultural, and policy & regulatory factors. Among these, economic factors were ranked the highest, with a weight of 0.416 (CR=0.0650), followed by technical challenges at 0.354 (CR=0.0678). Societal factors came in third with a weight of 0.086 (CR=0.0647), while infrastructural impediments and policy & regulatory challenges were ranked fourth and fifth, with weights of 0.073 (CR=0.0495) and 0.070 (CR=0.0500), respectively. Within the sub-criteria, the lack of awareness and education about biogas benefits was identified as the most significant, with a weight of 0.496 (CR=0.0486). This was followed by poor infrastructure at 0.429 (CR=0.0268) and the unavailability of technicians at 0.428 (CR=0.0491). In conclusion, the study found that enhancing technical support, providing economic cushions, improving infrastructure, and increasing awareness and education about the benefits of biogas are essential to promoting its wider adoption and use. The study recommends the need for public awareness and educational training programs such as seminars and workshops to improve overall understanding, creation of targeted subsidies for low-income households, as well as flexible payment schemes, and concessional financing to relieve the financial burden towards installing and maintaining this technology as well as capacity-building initiatives aimed at improving technical expertise.