ex-Minister drums support for renewable energy sources
Nigeria’s former Minister of State Power, Chinedu Nebo have urged Nigerians to embrace renewable energy resources in the country. According him, Nigeria’s abundant resources in solar power, wind and hydro-power could provide the needed succour for Nigeria’s epileptic power supply.
Nebo told BusinessDay in an exclusive interview that the effective application of energy mix with particular reference to solar and wind energy would afford more Nigerians the opportunity of having easier access to power, without going through the constraints of epileptic power supply.
”The most feasible, the most efficient, the most environmentally friendly has been given to us by God and we have ignored it. Solar has the potential. We still have more sunshine than Germany that has attained over 50% solar power for electrification.This is an area we must give attention to,” he said.
Nigeria’s epileptic power supply has been a source of worry to many Nigerians, as a result, the Federal government has been talking deeper about energy mix, which it said would avail more Nigerians numbering up to 100 million who are not connected to the national grid more access to power.
Nebo sharing further his experience with a solar company in Nigeria’s Capital Abuja suggested to the Federal government to ensure that most buildings and estates by the ministry of housing could adopt a model of having links with solar panel to enjoy more access to electricity through Nigeria’s sunshine.
“I had the privilege of visiting a company BlueCamel Energy in Guzape district in the Federal capital territory and looking at what those people have been able to do with solar energy, integrating a little bit of wind turbine, and I was fascinated. For me this is an idea of what an estate should look like, wherein incorporated in the design is solar energy for the buildings”
The former Minister pointed out further that, “In Africa, God blessed us with Sun. if you added All the fossil fuel capacity for electricity, hydro-power for electricity, in Africa, then you add hydro-thermal where the under-ground water is used and the heat is used to generate electricity, if you added all these together, solar alone could give Africa three times power than all of this put together.
According to Nebo, “In the Northern part of Nigeria, it is even better, because they have 50% more solar than we do in the Southern part. Virtually every part of Nigeria is amenable to solar power. More so, some wind turbines have been designed in such a way that they take low velocity.
In the coast lines where you have a super-abundant wind velocity, you can also attain almost 100% efficiency in wind turbine. That is the reason why you must use very efficient mechanisms, in this new turbine technology to generate electricity.”
The world is becoming increasingly environmentally clean and friendly, as countries are shifting to and promoting the use of cleaner energy sources that are renewable. .Industry watchers want the Federal government to shift attention to renewable energy to avert Nigeria the looming crisis of epileptic power supply.
Nigeria has over 200 Dams which are almost abandoned and are inefficient with regard to electricity generation. Energy experts want the Federal government to attract more private capital towards its infra structural financing to explore more advantages of hydro-power generation.
Nebo suggested to the Federal government to pull more investments into its dams to ensure that multiple turbines are put in the dams wherever water flows from the Dam to generate more electricity.