The five-bedroom bungalow located in Ejigbo, a suburb of Lagos, is outside the national grid for the last one year. Concept Technologies built and managed the edifice. According to the Managing Director, Tokunbo Tonade, the idea of the off-grid solar house was borne from the need to use renewable energy to solve the epileptic power supply in Nigeria.
A 12.6KW solar Off-grid system powers the home is a 5-bedroom bungalow. The system runs 94 % on the power of the sun and 6% on diesel during cloudy weather.
According to Tonade, the solar system generates 12.6KW of electricity per hour. To accomplish this it uses 63 units of 200W solar modules, three 60AMPS MPPT controllers, and 3.2KW inverters. in addition 24 units of 200AMPD deep cycle batteries are included. “I have been trying to advocate for renewable energy because it has a lot of gains. With generator, you use some amount of money to install the generator, buy diesel and fuel it yearly. On the other hand when we add everything up, they are higher than the amount used to install solar energy,” he added.
Also read: Power Africa project adds 30,000 new solar connections in Nigeria
Better alternative
He further said in the long-run, every year a bank spends US $140,000 to power each of its branches. In 10 years this accumulates to US$1.4m spent on a branch alone. Tonade says his alternative has 25 years warranty at US$336,000.
Chairmen of Ejigbo, and Isolo LCDA, Shamsudeen Olaleye, and Bello Oloyede called on the councils to embrace the initiatve in their quest to reduce money spent on powering generating sets. Olaleye further commended the management of Concept Technologies for their efforts at putting the council on the world map.
