The federal government of Nigeria is planning to implement a policy that will see the country add 2,483 megawatts of electricity into its national grid by 2015 from renewable energy sources.
This is according to Director of the Electrical Inspectorate Services (EIS), Mr Abayomi Adebisi, during presentation of a Renewable Energy and Efficiency Policy (draft) to stakeholders, who are expected to appraise it before it is escalated to the Federal Executive Council. Implementation of this policy will be crucial to pursuing this agenda. GIZ, a Germany enterprise has provided the grant and technical support to develop the policy.
Nigeria is also planning to have 1.3 percent of its energy mix come from renewable energy alternatives by 2015. In addition to the targeted 2,483MW, the country has goals of generating 8,188MW by 2020 and 23,134MW by 2030.
Nigeria will also be expected to reaching another aggressive target of 8 percent of its power coming from renewable energy alternatives by 2020, and 16% by 2030.
Adebisi has also said that the country will be sourcing 2,121MW and 140MW from large and small hydropower plants by 2015. Solar is expected to contribute 117MW.
He added, that 30 documents were pulled “from people who had once done something on renewable energy” in order to develop the policy. He added that the draft, which was developed by a committee of experts, was last year approved by the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREE). Lagos has also announced the desire to explore nuclear energy to ease power supply tension.
