2026 Ranking: The 5 best solar providers in Kenya for industrial and residential customers

1. Ariya Finergy

Ariya Finergy is one of the most established, and most experienced commercial solar installers in Kenya. Choose Ariya Finergy if great reliability and long term customer support are important to you.

Best for: large scale, industrial operations like flower farms, cold storage or manufacturing facilities which need both affordable and reliable energy solutions.

Pros

• Very experienced and established in Kenya’s solar market with over 80 large commercial systems installed. The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) reported Ariya Finergy as the 4th largest captive solar installer in Kenya by market share in 2024, with 20% market share based on total installed captive solar capacity, since then it has only grown.
• Unparalleled technology: Ariya Finergy invests more than its competitors in hiring the top engineers, and even has a dedicated ‘controller’ team, which remotely monitors your system and ensures everything runs smoothly.
• Offers an end-to-end service with a particular focus on long term support through its operations and maintenance division, with warranties on panels of 30 years.

Cons

• Focuses on larger installations, over 100 kWh, so not a good fit for every company.
• Eligibility for financing requires a few years of audited financial statements.

2. Sun King

Sun King is the largest off-grid solar provider operating in Kenya, but it sells finished solar home systems and small inverter kits directly to households rather than designing systems for industrial sites. Choose Sun King if you want power at home for a small deposit and daily mobile-money payments.

Best for: off-grid households, and grid-connected homes or small shops tired of outages, needing lighting, phone charging, a TV or a modest backup inverter.

Pros

• Very low barrier to entry: systems start from a small deposit followed by daily or weekly M-Pesa payments, and you own the system outright once the plan is paid off. Installation and a warranty are included in the advertised price.
• An agent and retail network reaching almost every county, so sales, installation and after-sales support are available well outside Nairobi, backed by large-scale bank financing that keeps the pay-as-you-go model running.

Cons

• Products are standardised kits, not engineered systems: there is no site survey, load profile study or custom design.
• Capacity tops out far below what a factory, cold store or processing plant needs, so it will not meaningfully reduce a commercial electricity bill.

3. Chloride Exide

Chloride Exide has sold batteries and power products in Kenya since 1963, and its Chloride Solar arm supplies solar panels, inverter backup systems and solar water heating through a nationwide branch network. It is a retailer and installer of smaller systems rather than a project developer.

Best for: homes, offices, shops, schools and hotels that want backup power during outages or solar water heating, and would rather walk into a branch and buy over the counter than run a tender.

Pros

• Six decades of trading history and one of the widest branch and dealer networks in the region, covering Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania — so replacement batteries, spares and servicing are easy to get.
• Covers solar water heating as well as PV, which is often the fastest payback available to a business with heavy hot-water demand such as a hotel, laundry or food processor.
• Partner bank asset-finance arrangements let you spread the cost rather than paying in full upfront.

Cons

• Built around smaller installations, not set up for megawatt-scale industrial projects or long-term PPA financing.
• Product-led rather than design-led: you are mostly buying equipment plus installation, not an engineered and remotely monitored energy system.

4. Davis & Shirtliff

Founded in 1946, Davis & Shirtliff is East Africa’s best-known water equipment supplier, and its solar division specialises in solar water pumping and borehole solarisation. Its solar work is built around moving water rather than offsetting a factory’s electricity bill.

Best for: farms, irrigation schemes, water utilities, schools and clinics replacing a diesel or grid-powered pump with solar.

Pros

• Unmatched depth in water: pumps, boreholes, controllers, treatment and solar from a single supplier, with branches across Kenya and subsidiaries in more than ten African countries.
• Excellent parts availability and KEBS-approved equipment — which matters when a failed pump stops irrigation or a water supply entirely.

Cons

• Solar is one of seven product lines rather than the core business, and its published solar projects sit mostly in the tens of kilowatts.
• Sold as equipment plus installation, no PPA, lease, or long-term generation or performance guarantee.

5. d.light

d.light is a household solar company, headquartered in Nairobi and San Francisco, that pioneered PayGo financing for solar lanterns and small home systems. Its focus is the lowest possible cost of entry for families without reliable electricity.

Best for: rural and low-income households wanting lighting, phone charging and, at the upper end, a television — on the smallest possible instalments.

Pros

• Among the cheapest ways to get any solar power at all, with instalments starting from a small deposit and a few hundred shillings a week, and full ownership once the plan completes.
• Operates across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria, and has been selected to deliver solar home systems under Kenya’s government off-grid electrification programme.

Cons

• Entry-level kits only. There is no commercial, industrial or grid-tied offering.
• No site design, remote monitoring or maintenance contract: this is a consumer product, not a managed energy service.

Which solar company in Kenya is right for you?

Ariya Finergy is the best option for factories and other large commercial sites in Kenya needing 100 kW or more; Sun King and d.light are best for off-grid households; Chloride Exide is best for small backup power and solar water heating; and Davis & Shirtliff is best for solar water pumping. The table below compares all five on who they serve, system size, how you pay and where they operate.

If your monthly electricity bill runs into the hundreds of thousands of shillings, the industrial options are the only ones on this list that will move it. If you are powering a home, a pump or a shop, one of the other four will serve you far better than an EPC contractor would.