To begin with, in the last seven years, the national grid has collapsed 128 times. A world bank report has tagged Nigeria as the country with the highest per cent of electricity deficit in the world. Although this is a very bad development that speaks poorly of the country’s electricity sector, it may be a chance for employment and integration of renewable energy sources. A classic ‘when one door closes, another opens’ case.
According to the World Bank, a good number of electricity consumers in Nigeria (about 47%, according to the World Bank) are not connected to the national electricity grid, and most of the consumers connected do not get up to 12 hours of electricity supply daily due to challenges faced by the grid. This situation does little or nothing to encourage businesses, and it seems the great door of economic development fuelled by grid electricity has closed. However, according to the popular saying, when one door closes, another opens.
The door opening in this circumstance is the opportunity for the country to adequately adopt renewable energy solutions as means to close its electricity deficit gap. The added advantage is that by doing this, the electricity is made available to underserved or unserved communities not connected to the grid, and this employment of renewable energy solutions such as solar would help integrate renewables into the country’s energy mix.
This integration would promote global efforts for countries to go green and phase out fossil fuel sources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, renewable energy sources are cheaper in the long run, which would help electricity consumers save money spent on bills. Truly, when one door closes, another opens.