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)
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