The Federal Government has expressed its commitment to generate 30 per cent of the country’s electricity from solar power so as to reduce pressure on the national grid.  The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, announced this last week while speaking at the presentation of a book entitled: “Solar Electricity Generation for off-grid communities in Nigeria,” written by the Managing Director of the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), Oladele Amoda.

The minister stated that solar is going to play an important role in Nigeria and disclosed that investors are now free to manufacture solar systems in the country, following the review of its pioneer status incentives.  He urged Nigerians to invest in solar energy because solar is not only the energy of the future but it is also most suited as a source of power to reach Nigerians living in various communities that are difficult to reach by the power distribution companies.

Fashola reassured the power companies of government’s support even while deploying more solar power through mini-grids and other Federal Government’s initiatives aimed at improving services in the power sector.  Indeed, in July 2017, two communities in Kaduna State, Gnami and Pakau, celebrated two years of uninterrupted power from the 90 kilowatt solar photovoltaic (PV) off-grid system installed in the areas, as the villages are far from the reach of the national power grid.

The minister’s remarks are timely and the policy of pushing for stronger investments in solar technology, long overdue.  After what the nation has gone through in the last 30 years in its effort to provide power for its citizens, Nigeria should cast its net wide in its search for viable sources of power.  Given the many problems that have come to be associated with thermal, hydro and coal as sources of power, solar energy appears to have good prospects even as the technology is still evolving.

But, any observer of the international energy scene would admit that it is not for nothing that the United States and China seem to engage in active investment competition in renewable energy, to come up with better and more cost-effective solar technologies.  President Obama was at the vanguard of that competition, seeing, as he said, that whoever wins in that competition would create millions of jobs in addition to a vast world market that is anxious for clean, renewable energy.

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The sheer magnitude of solar energy available makes it a most appealing source of energy.  In 2011, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that the development of affordable, inexhaustible and clean solar energy technology will have huge long-term benefits.  It will increase energy security of most countries through “reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible and mostly import-independent source.”  It is not only sustainable, it also reduces pollution and lowers the cost of global warming as well as the cost of fossil fuel.

We urge our own scientists and engineers to join in the hustle for solar technology.  Not only are we geographically at a vantage point, we get 6.5 hours of sunlight every day.  The Ministry of Power should sensitise Nigerians to the prospects and uses of solar energy.  Nigerians seem contented with solar lanterns and such rudimentary appliances.  Yet, we know that the special mini-power plants in a few rural areas powered by solar have been found successful, providing uninterrupted power to those rural communities.

Indeed, the ministry should expand the coverage and push the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to work harder at developing solar energy, join in the training of personnel to study the technology, and get our researchers to work in that field. Solar technology seems to be rather slow in its development.  As early as 1916, Frank Shuman told the New York Times that “we have proved the commercial profit of sun power in the tropics and have more particularly proved that after our stores of oil and coal are exhausted, the human race can receive unlimited power from the rays of the sun.”

Yet, a hundred years later, in 2016, after what was described as “another year of rapid growth,” solar generated only 1.3 per cent of global power.  Solar offers Nigerian scientists, engineers and technologists an opportunity to compete in a field that holds enormous prospects for hard work and creativity.  Our governments should encourage them with incentives to boost the utilisation of solar energy and the general electricity supply in the country.