Lack of govt funding, poor public awareness, hindering solar energy growth in Nigeria, says expert

Kenneth Afor

Despite being an easy alternative source of energy in the country, the development and growth of solar energy in Nigeria has failed to pick up, due to lack of funding from the government and poor awareness of the variability of the very readily available energy.

This was revealed by a solar energy expert, Rere Obaisi, chief executive officer, Reohob Nigeria Limited, who stressed that the adoption of solar energy is the way out in solving the country’s electricity problems.

Speaking in an interview with business a.m, Obaisi however hinted that lack of funding from the government and low level of awareness from the people are the challenges facing the adoption of the use of solar energy in the country.

He noted that challenges of developing solar energy and its efficiency to power homes and industries, lie in the opinion that the conventional sources of electricity such as hydro and gas will have more capacity than solar energy, which he said was not true.

“Funding and awareness are the biggest challenges facing the development and wide adoption of solar energy in Nigeria. On a daily basis, we are pushing out to Nigerians, the advantages of renewable energy over generators. Again, there is no development funding from the government. The government needs to support a major initiative such as solar energy technology so that it can become a veritable and affordable alternative for citizens to solve electricity problems. Basically, you need money to produce solar panels, you will need money for any kind of business, that is a general challenge, but government should see this solar energy development as a project to drive,” he said.

Obaisi debunked popular belief that solar energy cannot power industrial equipment, saying that solar enery is being used on a large scale in industries in some developed countries of the world.

“It is quite efficient, it is absolutely efficient, whatever the grid can do the solar can do. The only difference is cost implications. There are solar systems that can power what people use for industries. For example, at Reohob we have something that can power as many as 10 air conditioners. Solar is really efficient, gone are the days when they think solar is meant for just few bulbs and few things. Everything is possible, even in Apple office, they all going in the renewable energy way even the queen of England’s house is powered with solar, so it is quite important that people see this on a large scale,” he said.

“Solar is powered from the sun and we know it is unlimited, what resources can you have in the world that is as much as the resources from the sun? The only thing is harvesting, that is, the more the solar panels you have the more power you harvest, the more you can use it. Of course, if you have the more solar panels, the more the power. There is a stadium right now that its entire roof is covered with solar panels and then it probably generate what can power two countries,” he stated.