Use of Solar Energy in Nigeria: Efforts, Innovations and Missing Links

Use of Solar Energy in Nigeria: Efforts, Innovations and Missing Links

As Nigerians, we accept two painful realities; Nigeria faces perennial energy crisis and ironically Nigeria is abundantly blessed with various energy resources nationwide. It is a mixture of hope, disappointment and sweet dreams.  The various energy resources are crude oil, tar sands, natural gas and coal. In Africa,  Nigeria is the largest crude oil producer with a reserve estimated to be about 36 million barrels, which is about 4.9 billion ton of oil equivalent. In addition, the country is blessed with natural gas having an estimated volume of over 5,000 billion m³ of gas, which is 1,000 times more than the quantity of crude oil available in the country.  The endowed natural gas includes associated and non- associated reserves; placing the country among the top 10 countries with the largest gas reserves globally.  Despite this "unlimited" crude oil , Nigeria, imports over 60% of its domestic petroleum product requirements. This is part of the energy crisis.

The major energy crisis is in the area of electric power generation, transmission and distribution. With a population estimate of over 170 million people, Nigeria’s current power generation is less than 6,000 megawatt despite government colossal investment of billions of Naira in the sector. This situation has certainly resulted into acute shortage of electricity to both urban and rural dwellers with serious consequences on the socio-economic activities and overall productivity. For instance, according to available data; with all oil and gas, Nigeria generated electricity output of 2000 MW in 2009,  while South Africa, within the same period produced 43,000 MW of electricity for a population size equivalent to about one third of Nigeria's population. On per capita basis, many smaller African countries generate electricity more than what Nigeria generates; for instance Senegal, Ghana, Gabon, Zambia, Algeria, Mozambique and Cameroun generate more electricity than the amount being generated in Nigeria. Some African nations, not as rich as Nigeria have a long time ago celebrated one year of uninterruptible power supply while Nigeria is yet to celebrate a one week uninterrupted power supply even at the nation capital, Abuja. It is estimated that about 90 million Nigerians are living without adequate electric power supply forcing them to live on expensively maintained generator sets. The consequence of unrealible electricity is devastating as it continues to hamper economic growth and hurts investor confidence This is the energy crisis that has just refused to go, it has become a headache to all of us. Without doubt, energy is a cardinal pillar for the economic growth to run existing industries, establishes new ones, facilitates rapid urbanization and achieve a higher standard of living for the citizenry. How is the bulk of electricity in Nigeria being generated?

Electricity generation in Nigeria is concentrated on only two major sources of power generation; hydro and gas. Nigeria has a total of three hydro plants located at Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro, respectively. There are several thermal installed power plants at Egbin, Sapele, Okpai, Afam, Delta, Omoku, Ajaokuta, Geregu, Omotosho and Olorunsogo towns/villages. There are many other conceivable electricity generation and related projects using gas such as the Escravos Gas to Liquid Phase three, Trans-Sahara Gas, Pipeline Project, Mobil OSO Condensate Project phase Two, Brass -LNG Project, OK-LNG Project and the West African Gas Pipe Line Project.  Despite all these projects, there is no tangible result and the nation loom into deeper energy crisis. The nation has simply failed to achieve adequate supply of electricity for both domestic and industrial uses.  Several factors are blamed for these abysmal performance in electric power generation in spite of  efforts and assurances of past and current administrations. Nigeria needs to change its strategy for the electricity power generation to meet the nation demands of adequate power supply. This situation calls for the harnessing of other sources of energy, especially the solar power. It can be recalled that the 1973 oil crisis as well as the economic hiccups faced by the Western World brought the need for harnessing renewable resources of energy such as solar energy, as part of the strategies to meet the increasing demand for energy at that time. It had resulted in making many countries to enjoy abundant energy supply from solar in addition to other sources of electricity. 

 Solar energy is the energy transmitted from the sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation, which requires no medium for its transmission. According to experts, the earth receives about one – half of one billionth of the total solar output. The Sun can be a singular solution to the global future energy needs since almost all renewable energy sources originate directly or indirectly from the Sun. It delivers more energy per hour than the earth uses in one year, the energy is free from pollutants, greenhouse gases and very secure from geo-political constraints, socio-political conflicts inherent with other sources of energy.

Nigeria, fortunately located closed to the equator, within a high sunshine belt receives fairly well distributed solar radiation. Current literature reveals that the annual daily average of total solar radiation in Nigeria varies from about 3.5 kWh/m²/day in the coastal to about 7.0 kWh/m²/day in the far north, thus making the country to receive an average of 5.3 kWh/m²/day of solar energy. Considering the Nigerian landmass of a total area of 923,768 km², the amount of solar energy available to Nigeria on daily is far more than the energy needs of Nigerian and its neighbors. There is huge potential for solar applications ranging from stand-alone micro utilization to large scale grid connected applications. Many studies on the potential analysis of solar energy application in Nigeria indicated that vast opportunities for tapping solar energy existed nationwide. At various fora, experts expressed their opinion and believe that Nigeria has all it takes to make the use of solar energy popular and resolve its energy crisis. One of such experts is Professor Abubakar Sani Sambo, a first class Mechanical engineer of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, accomplished administrator and energy scientist. He was quoted saying that one percent of Nigeria’s land mass could be utilised for the generation of over 600,000 megawatts of electricity using solar energy. This is 100 times more than the current generation of electricity in using fossil and hydro power stations in the country. Nigeria should look in this direction especially as it has been estimated that Nigeria's fossil fuels are likely to be depleted to an uneconomical point by the year 2050 with the present extraction trend. We should burrow a leaf from Ghana and take advantage of the abundant solar energy we are blessed with. Economic Confidential, an online newspaper of 23rd May, 2016 reported a plan made by Ghana to install a total of 56,000 solar systems, two million solar lanterns and 200 mini-grids in pursuance to achieve the global target of access to affordable and clean energy by the year 2030. The paper quoted Kwabena Otu-Danquah, an acting Director of the country’s Energy Commission, saying “Under the Standalone Renewable Energy-based electrification options, solar systems for public facilities, including schools, clinics and security outposts, are being deployed and to date, about 2,400 systems have been installed. The target is to install 6,000 systems by 2030. Deployment of solar home systems for lighting and phone charging in rural off-grid households is also ongoing. Over 16,800 systems have been deployed to date"

Let us pulse and ask some pertinent questions; how difficult/ simple is tapping or converting solar energy to meet our energy demands? What are the efforts made by Nigeria to tap the massive solar energy receives on Nigerian territorial landmass? The means of converting solar radiation to useful energy for man utilization is simple. First, solar radiation can be directly utilized for drying of agricultural materials or any useful materials requiring such service. Second is Photovoltaic; it is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current (DC) electricity using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. As of 2010, solar photovoltaic generates electricity in more than 100 countries. It  is the fastest growing power-generation technology in the world and the most popular method these days.  Another popular method is the use of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) system: CSP is a system that uses lenses or mirrors to concentrate a large area of solar rays, or solar thermal energy, onto a small area. Electrical power is produced when the concentrated light is converted to heat which drives a heat engine (usually a steam turbine) connected to an electrical power generator. Still another method is use of Parabolic Trough (PT);  PT consists of a linear parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned along the reflector's focal line. The reflector follows the Sun during the daylight hours by tracking along a single axis. There are several other methods of tapping solar radiation for either direct conversion to electric power or thermal power before final conversion to electric power. Some of these methods were employed in Nigeria to execute several solar energy pilot projects across the nation from early 1970s to date. where are these projects? what are the impacts of these projects? Are there any innovations made in Nigeria using solar energy? (To be Continued next week)

Ahmadu Bello University: Another Giant Stride to Decuple National Sugar Production for Self Sufficiency and Exportation II

In the first part of this article published last week, it was reported that Nigeria can only produce 2% of the sugar it consumes annually with the remaining 98 % from exportation. According to National sugar development council, Nigeria is the second largest buyer of refined sugar from Brazil. In 2013 alone over US $ 865 milion was spent on the importation of 2.5 million tons of refined sugar. The major hindrance to Nigeria being self-sufficient is at the level of production. Globally, sugarcane production is faced with several challenges; the main drawback faced by sugarcane production is the vegetative nature of its conventional propagation. Sugarcane is clonally propagated from cuttings of stalks and propagation from cuttings facilitates the spread of pathogens, which might result in epidemics. Since sugarcane stalks can be infected by various pathogens without exhibiting any symptoms; there is a high risk of disease transfer from one place to another through conventional propagation. For a rapid development of our local sugar industry there is the urgent need to enhance the productivity of the sugarcane. Large scale production of sugarcane will require large quantity and quality planting materials, which cannot be produced sufficiently to meet the demand using conventional techniques. Similarly, the development of cultivars with high yielding potential, high sugar content and resistant to diseases and pests through conventional breeding programmes requires a very longer period of time (8-10 years) to develop and release an elite sugarcane variety. It also allows the perpetuation of diseases from generation to generation. Biotechnology techniques have been extensively developed and applied for several thousand plant species including sugarcane. Their uses are of high interest for multiplication, transformation and conservation of plant germplasm. Tissue culture technique (micropropagation), a biotechnology approach can overcome these problems by providing mass, uniform, disease free plantlets within a short period of time (1-3 years). Adoption of biotechnology therefore, would not only help in transforming local sugar industry in Nigeria, but also help in transforming the economy. This is the task that was taken by Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria as community service, which is one of the three cardinal pillars of a university establishment.

The task of decupling national sugarcane production is by all means a herculean one, which can be achieved with careful planning, high level of commitment and meticulous execution of the plan. This task, voluntarily taken by Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) through her research centre (IAR) and Department of Plant Science is expected to make tangible impacts on Nigerian sugar industry. Considering the university's zealousness to participate in solving developmental problems, it is not surprising that ABU is assiduously working to accomplish the task. This is because ABU Zaria, one of the first generation Nigerian Universities is no doubt an icon of nation building in view of its giant contributions since establishment over fifty years ago. Series of modest achievements in the technological strides of the university in recent years were reported by this Column in October, 2015. The achievements were made by the University's academic Departments, Institutes and Centres that deal with human concerns such as health, agriculture, education, energy, legal studies, biotechnology, disaster management, veterinary, finance, communication, spatial information and ICT with impacts on the larger society within and outside the country. Therefore, this task is one of the numerous efforts of the university on daily basis. It is done  to advance the frontiers of learning and break new grounds, through teaching, research and dissemination of knowledge of the highest quality as contained in the university's Strategic Plan.

As mentioned in the first part of this article last week, the task taken by ABU is to use the concept of tissue culture to mass produce disease-free planting materials from the biofactory.  The biofactory is headed by Prof. Inuwa Usman, a plant breeder and accomplished academic of international refute with his dedicated chain of scientists and technicians. It is equally equipped with bioreactors and other relevant instruments to produce plantlets.  Thus, the tissue culture is one of technologies generated by the university and identified to be of great benefit to the nation when used to address the sugarcane production challenges as well as multiplication of the planting materials in a short time. What is the progress made so far, one year after the biofactory establishment? 

The biofactory named as "IAR/NSDC Sugarcane Biofactory" is a factory that uses cutting edge technology to propagate sugarcane in large quantity within a short period of time. The factory makes massive production of sugarcane using Temporary Immersion Bioreactor System (TIBS), Conventional Tissue Culture (CTC) a process commonly referred to as in vitro Micropropagation. In addition to in vitro Micropropagation, sugarcane is produced through the ex vitro Micropropagation using single germ culture (M.P.B.). With the in vitro Micropropagation alone, the biofactory can produce an estimated 1 million true to type, disease free seedlings of relatively the same height from one parent plant alone within one year. The in vitro Micropropagation method occurs in a sterile environment, and employs the use of sterile initiation, multiplication and rooting growth media, supplemented with essential micro and macronutrients, for sugarcane production. The ex vitro Micropropagation (M.P.B) on the other hand involves regenerating plant from single gems obtained from pretreated sugarcane stock plants. The germs are raised on suitable substrates to produce healthy sugarcane seedlings. With this technology an estimated 30 hectares can planted from a single hectare of sugarcane.

At present the biofactory has the capacity to produced one million seedlings. With install capacity of 1000 bioreactor bottles containing 25 plants each and multiplication rate of X10 the biofactory can produce an estimated 2.3 million seedlings at 9 bioreactor cycles per annum.  After two cycles of split at seed bulking centers, it is expected to be enough for planting estimated 11 thousand hectares (at 1,430 plant/hectare) of industrial sugarcane cultivated annually. The production capacity of the biofactory is projected to be around 10 million seedlings in the next 5 years. After bulking, 10 million seedlings are expected to generate planting materials for estimated 70,000 hectares per annum.

Currently, the Biofactory provides the following services

(i)           High quality sugarcane plant material in huge quantity produce using tissue culture technology

(ii)         Provision of large amount of sugarcane  plant material produced using MPB technology

(iii)       Provision of high quality planting material of other important crops such as pineapple, Banana, Cassava, date palm etc.

(iv)        Provision of readymade coconut coir for acclimatization of tissue culture plants and raising other important garden plants.

(v)          Provision of training on tissue culture and ex vitro rapid propagation of plants and consultancy services for the establishment of Biofactory, Greenhouse and other acclimatization centers.

To increase efficiency and opportunities for acquiring modern technology on tissue culture, the activities of the biofactory are being diversified, already discussion is ongoing with partners in Brazil on the possibility of producing ornamental plants for export to Middle East and Europe.

The benefits of biofactory are enormous;  Sugarcane planting materials are produced by in vitro techniques using tissue culture and MPB technology in the greenhouse. The biofactory provides improved seedlings for the establishment of commercial sugarcane plantations nationwide. Similarly, the biofactory will soon be a major source of planting materials to sugarcane out growers and independent farmers. Again, the plants produced from tissue culture are superior in performance. Unlike the conventional methods in which seedlings are produced from plants of all categories, the seedlings produced using tissue cultures are clones of selected parent plants with desired qualities and this will no doubt outperform the seedling produced using conventional methods. The biofactory makes use of improved, Brazil-imported and some Nigerian sugarcane for tissue culture and thus, customers are sure of getting the best of seedlings of various varieties that are both of high quality and disease free, thanks to the method of micro-propagation employed. Although, tissue culture seedlings are relatively expansive, the MPB will provide quality seedlings at a lower cost affordable to resource poor farmers.

What are the challenges to the biofactory? Like any other industry, the biofactory faces some challenges. Worthy of note is the increasingly variable climate that causes the seedlings to face the challenge of survival especially those in the greenhouse. This is seen most especially during the harmattan period. During this period, high contamination levels as well as low multiplication rates which are peculiar to almost all sugarcane varieties at this period are observed in the greenhouse. However, with the availability of functional humidity sensor for humidity control and sprinklers in the greenhouse, the required amount of humidity and moisture can be provided to combat this challenge. Due to the high multiplication rate of sugarcane in the tissue culture, the need for more labour force is required, most especially grafters. The Poor response of some sugarcane genotypes to in-vitro culture and variation among genotypes to culture requirement is another challenge being faced. To overcome difficulties in the in-vitro response and variation among genotypes, different regeneration strategies are being employed in the initial regeneration process and culture condition for any given genotype to ensure maximum efficient in regeneration.

In conclusion, the effort of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria is both commendable and paying, already tangible results have been recorded and the biofactory is ready to take up challenges of vegetative propagation of all crops needing such method for seedling production. The Federal government, state governments and industries should take advantage of the tissue culture technology being provided by the biofactory in ABU Zaria to enhance the production level of these important crops.

                   With additional report from Dr. Maimuna Abdulmalik

Ahmadu Bello University: Another Giant Stride to Decuple National Sugar Production for Self Sufficiency and Exportatio

n

Nigeria consumes more than 1 million tons of sugar annually. Available data from the website of National Sugar Development Council shows that the annual Sugar consumption in Nigeria steadily increased from 645,248 tons in 1990 to 1,433,471 tons in 2014. Within the same period, the highest contribution from the local production was in 2007 when 55,000 tons was produced, which was equivalent to a merely 4.4% of the quantity (1,258,996 tons) consumed in that year.  In 2014, only 12,345 tons of sugar was locally produced, which made the country to import 91% of the sugar consumed locally. On the average Nigeria produces a paltry 2 % of the sugar consumed locally with the nation spending billions of hard currency to import sugar in addition to many other food items. One of the news items reported by Julia Fioretti of Reuter News, London indicated that Nigeria pays a bill of $11 billion-a-year for food importation on the average. This ugly trend causes serious concern to Nigerians especially the leadership because the country is a huge sugar market of over 165 million consumers with unlimited opportunities for investors. There are uncountable comparative and competitive advantages for local sugar production in several states in the country especially in the north and central parts of Nigeria. Government initiated intervention to holistically address the issue.

In 2008, the Federal Government directed the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), to develop a road map for the attainment of self-sufficiency in sugar within the shortest time possible. In compliance, the Council came up with the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan. In September, 2012, the Federal Government approved the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan (NSMP), which marked a new phase in the development of the sugar industry. The objectives of the NSMP are to raise local sugar production to attain self sufficiency; provide specific fiscal incentives investors to attract investment into the sector. At the same time, government formulated Backward Integration Programme (BIP) to discourage massive importation of the sugar into the country. Provision of support incentives, robust monitoring and evaluation of BIP; stem the tide of high level importation; high graduated tariff structure on sugar importation; import quota allocation benchmarked on local production. Some of the incentives are:

Ø  Low duty of 2.5% on machinery for the industry;

Ø  Chemicals for sugar production have zero duty;

Ø  Import duty of 20% on refined sugar, as well as a development levy of 10% and VAT of about 5%;

Ø  Provision of infrastructure including access roads, boreholes, power lines, land acquisition, and health care facilities for new sugar estates;

Ø  100 percent foreign ownership of sugar complexes is allowed;

Ø  Provision of a credit support scheme for sugarcane growers in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and commercial banks

However, these incentives encourage investments at downstream level of the sugarcane value chain rather than upstream level where production takes place. The major activities at the downstream level are sugar refining, packaging and distribution.  Nigerian annual Sugar Report of 2013 made by the United State Development Agency (USDA) estimated the sugar refining capacity of Nigeria to 2.1 million tons, which exceeds the country’s current total sugar demand of 1.45 million tons. However, the country’s sugar refineries depend almost exclusively on brown sugar from Brazil at five percent duty. About 98 percent of all imports come in the form of raw sugar and is refined locally while the remainder of imports is refined sugar. More than 90 percent of raw sugar was imported from Brazil. So far, this situation assisted or encouraged investment in sugar refining rather than in production. To discourage sugar importation, the Federal Government introduced a new sugar tariff regime at the beginning of the year, 2013 and raw sugar imports began to attract a 10 percent import duty, and a 50 percent levy, effective January 2013. This newer regime was meant to stimulate local sugar production. Even though total privatization of Nigeria’s sugar estates was accomplished, the country’s sugar production continues to lag far behind consumption. The privatization is yet to show the desired results. Recently (4^th February 2016, at Hamdala Hotel, in Kaduna), a sensitization workshop was organized by the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) and was attended by key stakeholders. Part of the communiqué at the end of workshop noted that “the gains and impact of the Nation’s privatized Premier Sugar Company at Bacita which was taken over by Josepdam and the Lafiagi Sugar project bought by BUA Group have not yet been felt and therefore called on Federal Government and its relevant agencies to critically examine the extenuating circumstances militating against the effective performance under the new ownership arrangements”.  This clearly indicates that huge investment in public infrastructure and human/material resources are urgently needed for the country to catch up with the current and fast growing sugar demand.

In recent times, we witnessed more investment in sugar industries, last week, this paper Leadership Friday reported billions of Naira worth of investment in the sector by Flour Mills of Nigeria PLC (FMN), FMN is a conglomerate with active presence in several sectors of the Nigerian market including Agro-Allied. It made history when one of its subsidiaries; Sunti Golden Sugar Estate started sugar production in its new N45 billion sugar Mill near Mokwa in Niger state. Sunti Sugar has 20,000 hectares of irrigable farm land and a giant sugar factory using latest technologies to mill up to 4,500 metric tons of sugar per day. FMN has also invested N50 billion in a state of the art sugar refinery in Apapa capable of refining up to 2,000 metric tons per day.  The first stage of the group investment in local sugar production will produce over 100,000 metric tons of sugar, create over 25,000 new jobs, generate 10MW of excess electricity, produce animal feeds and fertilizer from sugar molasses by products and save 50 million dollars in foreign exchange for the nation. The project was supported by the Federal Government through a N25 billion loan from CBN at subsidized interest rate

Nigeria has all the potentials to produce sugar for home consumption and exportation, According to the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC), Nigeria has a land potential of over 500,000 hectares of suitable cane fields that can produce over 5 million metric tons of sugarcane that when processed, can yield about 3 million metric tons of sugar, which will be twice the national sugar demand. What are the problems? Inadequate infrastructure and low quality sugarcane planting materials? With poor infrastructure especially at the rural areas making access to the farm lands very difficult, sugar production continues to be unattractive to farmers and investors while the national sugar consumption continues to grow. In addition to poor infrastructure, the traditional method of sugarcane propagation is another serious challenge to the sugarcane production. Plants that do not produce seeds or even when they produce seeds, the seeds are often heterozygote and are of no use in breeding  and plants that have low multiplication ratio such as banana, pineapple, cassava, date palm, sugarcane etc are usually propagated by vegetative means (asexually).  Vegetative method of propagation is slow, only a few propagules are produce from a plant in a year and allows the transfer of systemic diseases from one generation to another. Another challenge of local propagation is bulkiness of the planting materials. Example, one needs sugarcane quantity of one hectare to transplant on a 10 – hectare area using the traditional method of vegetative propagation.  What is the solution?

The solution to the use of local method of vegetative propagation to sugarcane planting materials is to use plant tissue culture. Plant tissue culture is a collection of techniques used to maintain or grow plant cells, tissues or organs under sterile conditions on a nutrient culture medium of known composition. Plant tissue culture is widely used to produce clones of a plant in a method known as micro-propagation.  The tissue culture is based on the concept of Plant regeneration; the regeneration may occur through two pathways that is organogenesis which is the production of shoots, followed by root formation or through somatic embryogenesis whereby fully formed embryos are generated and subsequently induced to germinate. Application of plant tissue cuture to decuple national sugarcane production within few years is another task taken by the famous Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, the most cosmopolitan ivory tower south of the Sahara. In this regard, a sugarcane biofactory was established by Institute for Agriculture (IAR), one of the oldest and outstanding research centers of ABU in collaboration with National Sugar Development Council, Abuja. The Sugar biofactory was commissioned one year ago in the Agricultural Complex of the university and the plant scientists of the university have since begun earnest work to achieve the desire results. What is the progress? How promising is this technique? What are the challenges to sugar biofactory? (To be continued next week) Read the Newspaper version