Kiandu Coffee Factory in Nyeri has installed solar panels to cut energy costs.

The Sh30 million solar eco pulping machine, which uses less power as well as minimal water during coffee cherry processing, will cover more than 5,000 farmers.

Donated by Coffee Marketing Services and Self Africa, the new system saves farmers Sh1,500 per hour, replacing an electricity bill of Sh500,000 monthly paid to Kenya Power.

"This machine will only use two litres of water to pulp coffee one kg of cherry as opposed to the old disc machine which uses 20 litres for the same job ,it has also capacity for generation of 46 kilowatt of power which means they can. Pulp their produce for 24 hours cheaply " said CMS manning director kamau kuria.

Kamau added that unlike the disc machines, which cause breakage of beans during pulping, the latest unit does not, letting farmers sell clean products.

Engineer Peter Ndumia, who installed system, said that the solar equipment has a capacity of 46 kilowatts and can process coffee even without sunlight.

"This coffee season we are sure we will pay our farmers well with a saving of ksh 1500 an hour we are sure that if your operations costs going down then we have no reason to pay well," said the factory chairman Albert Muriuki.

Kiandu coffee farmers produce over 3 million KGS of cherry each year, but farmers have been being paid below Sh100 shillings for a kilo of coffee delivered.