By Chukwudi Nweje
Prof. Eli Jidere Bala, Director General/Chief Executive officer Energy Commission Nigeria, has identified investment in renewable energy as vital to solving the country’s energy crisis.
Prof Bala, who spoke at the Energy Audit inception meeting for the University of Lagos hosted by the staff of the National Centre for Energy Efficiency and Conservation faulted the current practice based on sustainable production, even as it is produced and wasted.
“Globally energy efficiency is at the centre of energy discourse. Energy efficiency cut across all energy types and issues. Meeting our national as well as individual energy needs will continue to be a challenge especially when we have to do that in a sustainable manner. Why then do we have to labour hard to produce energy and thereafter waste it? So, we all have obligation to be energy efficiency complaint in our homes and offices and when commuting between them and other places.”
Bala, who was represented by Ibrahim Sulu, a Director of Energy Management at the Commission called on Nigeria to invest in and embrace renewable energy production, which he said will be at the centre of the energy transition in the future.
“The European Union has predicted that 50 per cent of investments between 2019 to 2030 in the energy sector will go to energy efficiency.”
He challenged Nigerian universities to take the lead and go into the neglected area of production of renewable and sustainable renewable energy.
“Energy supply is mostly neglected and it is a mistake. Both supply-side energy management and end-use side energy management are important. Knowing your demand, next is meeting the demand through a robust supply strategy. The energy mix is central here and it has to be a diversified mix for energy security: on-the-campus energy generation, supply from outside, renewable and sustainable non-renewable are all necessary. This shouldn’t be a problem to universities because you are the source of solutions to all problems,” Bala said.