Solar Energy

As the renewable energy sector in Nigeria booms, more solar panels and components continue to find their way into the Nigeria market to meet up with the ever-surging demand for solar solutions. In this article, the author analyses how the Nigerian import tariff policy on solar products could impact on this booming market.

Most Nigerian residents still rely on diesel and petrol powered generators to complement the unstable energy they get from the national grid. However, there is a surging demand for standalone solar solutions, how will Nigeria handle the potential toxic lead-acid battery waste from solar products? This article tries to find out.

Many Nigerians cannot afford to buy their own homes. Real estate properties are expensive and there is lack of robust mortgage available to Nigerians. With an increasing population and an expanding housing deficit of over 17 million units, award winning architect Chinwe Ohajuruka still believes that affordable green houses have the ability to curtail the housing deficit and place many Nigerians on the pathway of owning their homes. Chinwe has completed the construction of an Eco Village in Port Harcourt which could become a blueprint for affordable housing, low-carbon architecture and job creation. Watch Video

Many Nigerians have grown skeptical about the power of solar. The general impression is that solar energy cannot provide a lot of power, that ‘it’s not bright’ and that it breaks down after just a few months. One solar engineer in the capital city of Abuja has gone all the way to demonstrate that this impression is wrong: He has built a block of apartments which are run entirely on renewable energy.

In Amakpa community in Edo state, Solar panels have powered a borehole for the past four years. The experience has been without hitches, a win-win for the villagers as Adesesde Oghademegbe explains in this short video. Watch video

Nigeria’s renewable energy industry is tiny by all means, despite excellent conditions for electricity production from solar, small hydro and biomass sources. If Nigeria covered only 1% of its land mass with solar panels, it could produce 192,000 megawatts of power, compared to the 4,000 megawatts that are currently available on the national grid. In his contribution to the Green Deal Nigeria study, Huzi Mshelia describes the manifold efforts on energy policy and regulation, which have so far resulted in little results.