Shelton Nyakundi, an 18-year-old student at the Menengai boarding school in Nakuru, Kenya, believes one simple thing could make the difference between the academic success and failure of many pupils: light.

 Nyakundi says to save money, his school switches off its inefficient incandescent lights at 10 p.m. depriving students of valuable studying time. “Right now, lack of light is a limiting factor, both in the evenings and in the mornings,” says Nyakundi, who wants to work in healthcare when he graduates.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Copenhagen Climate Centre is supporting a pilot project aiming to brighten the future of Nyakundi and his classmates. The effort is outfitting 100 Kenyan boarding schools with low-cost, energy-efficient light-emitting-diodes or LED lighting, which will allow school administrators to save money and keep lights on longer.

The project is a collaboration with Sustainable Energy for All, a UN-hosted initiative, and Kenya’s Ministry of Education. It is part of a larger effort by Kenya to improve energy efficiency, which is a key component of the country’s plans to expand access to affordable renewable power. 

Workers install new high-efficiency LED lights at the Menengai boarding school in Nakuru, Kenya. Credit: UNEP/Eugene Kaiga

“Energy efficiency is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to improve living standards and counter climate change globally and it does not require fundamental changes to existing energy systems,” says John Christensen, Director of the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre.

Data from the International Energy Agency suggests that energy efficiency globally could deliver 40 per cent of the emissions cuts necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, which aims to keep global warming well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. At COP28 Dubai last year, governments pledged to double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements every year until 2030. UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report 2024 also highlighted the need for countries to outline in their Nationally Determined Contributions how they plan to achieve these energy efficiency improvements.

Embracing energy efficiency – and LED lights in particular – could pay big dividends in countries struggling to power their schools. Globally, 25 per cent of primary schools and about 15 per cent of secondary schools lack access to electricity, affecting 186 million children, says the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Even in schools with electricity, inefficient lighting means many struggle to afford electricity bills, resulting in outages.

 
Lighting is responsible for about half of electricity consumption in Kenya’s schools, found an analysis by the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre. That is largely due to the proliferation of florescent and incandescent lights. Credit: UNEP/Eugene Kaiga

Lighting is responsible for about half of electricity consumption in Kenya’s schools, according to an analysis by the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre. That is largely due to a reliance on incandescent bulbs, which have a filament that is heated until it glows, and fluorescent lighting, which generates gas from atomic collisions. Both those processes are inefficient compared to LED lighting, which passes an electrical current through a microchip, illuminating tiny light sources.

In Kenyan schools, LEDs are freeing up resources that can be reinvested in other needs, such as schoolbooks, sports equipment, and teacher training.

Menegai High School’s principal, John Ngunyi, said the switch to LEDs, which began in September, will benefit more than 2500 students.

“The LED system will increase the amount of time that the students have for studying and the amount of time that they can have the lights on,” he says.

Credit: UNEP/Eugene Kaiga

The LED bulbs are provided by the Signify Foundation, a charity arm of Signify, a global lighting manufacturer. Eric Otenio, Signify’s Program Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, highlights that LED bulbs are much easier on students’ eyes. “They reduce flickering and therefore eyestrain and headaches,” he says. He also points out that LED bulbs need to be replaced much less frequently than fluorescent bulbs, thereby reducing waste.

As school principal Ngunyi points out, it is not just the students who will benefit from the new lighting system: “[In the past] we limited the lights for the cooks and the watchmen, telling them not to put the lights on until a certain time.” Once the new LED lights are installed, Ngunyi says he won’t worry about the school’s month-end electricity bill.

Credit: UNEP/Eugene Kaiga

 The LED lighting pilot project will be completed by the end of 2024 and will see more than 10,000 traditional fluorescent lamps replaced. That is expected to result in savings of more than US$213,000 a year across the 100 schools, a 27 per cent reduction in their current power bills. It will save power equivalent to the release of 460,000kg of carbon dioxide annually.

“This is a win-win for schools,” says Christensen. “And it highlights the huge impact something relatively simple to implement can have on the lives of students.”

The Sectoral Solution to the climate crisis

UNEP is at the forefront of supporting the  Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperature rise well below 2°C, and aiming for 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. To do this, UNEP has developed the Sectoral Solution, a roadmap to reducing emissions across sectors in line with the Paris Agreement commitments and in pursuit of climate stability. The six sectors identified are: energy; industry; agriculture and food; forests and land use; transport; and buildings and cities.
 

TrendForce 2024 Global LED Lighting Market Analysis
Release Date: 01 February 2024 / 31 July 2024
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