Imagine if half of Nigeria’s populace could generate their electricity without depending on power supply from the grid or having to spend their finances on diesel generators. Indeed, life would become better for many, and the economic situation will improve drastically.
Sadly, this is not the case as lack of electricity is still a lingering challenge affecting all sectors of the economy. In a report released by the International Renewable Agency (IEA), about 77 million Nigerians lack access to electricity.
The lack of electricity is not only affected by rural residents, but some urban residents also experience a fair share.
Over the past decades, solutions that have been put forward to resolve the challenge of grid connectivity have fallen below expectations, including the privatisation exercise. Therefore, a new outlook needs to be taken to liberate Nigerians from the darkness.
If the installed electricity generation capacity of over 12,000MW is successfully generated, transmitted and distributed, the basic truth is that it will still not be sufficient to serve the country. Consequently, off-grid electricity has to supplement grid power regardless of the state of the grid until the country is buoyant enough to expand its grid network.
Expanding the grid network will require immediate finance to purchase infrastructure and require operations on other weak infrastructure, years of the workforce, and operations to scale up the grid, which is a rather long process.
The need for electricity among Nigerians is immediate. Hence, it is critical to adopt off-grid and mini-grid solutions which can provide electricity efficiently, requiring only days to months of installation, depending on the scale of the project.
Some Off-Grid Energy Solutions are:
Solar and Biomass Mini-Grids: Mini-grids involves small-scale electricity generation, which serves a limited number of consumers. It is ideal for isolated rural settlements (learn more).
Solar Home Systems (SHS): SHS are small technologies in which solar panels are mounted on the rooftops of houses. It could be modified to satisfy different energy requirements for off-grid communities.
To pen down, the immediate solution to the 77 million without electricity access is adopting off-grid energy solutions.