Solar power generation has grown significantly in recent years to about 20 per cent of Nigeria’s electricity supply and could reach 50 per cent by 2029 if current deployment and private-sector partnerships continue, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) said.
REA managing director, Abba Abubakar Aliyu, disclosed this on Thursday at the just concluded 25th Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) Energy Week in Abuja.
Speaking during an energy panel, dubbed, “Re-Engineering Africa’s Power Market – Driving Reliable Energy Systems
Aliyu said Solar’s share of national generation has grown quickly and that continued momentum would see it approaching half of the country’s power mix in the next two to three years.
Aliyu said the growth was driven by increasing deployment and greater collaboration with private investors.
“Solar currently makes up 20 per cent of the nation’s total generation capacity and at the rate of deployment we are seeing it is approaching 50 per cent,” he said.
Nigeria, the REA chief told delegates, was moving from being a major consumer of clean-energy equipment to a regional provider of renewable technology.
Manufacturers in the Lagos-Sagamu industrial corridor were building capacity to meet demand across West Africa, he said.
Aliyu said solar photovoltaic (PV) panels made in Lagos were already being exported to neighbouring countries.
He added that a pipeline of some 3.7 gigawatts of PV manufacturing capacity was being developed to support further expansion.
“If you go to the Lagos – Sagamu axis, you will see manufacturing companies coming up,” he said.
While acknowledging the rapid growth in solar deployment and local manufacturing, REA and industry representatives warned that conventional gas-fired thermal plants will still be needed to stabilise Nigeria’s grid.
Another panellist, Vincent Ozoude, managing director and chief executive officer of Transafam Power Limited, said that the intermittency of renewables and the need to stabilise supply for a growing population required gas.
He cautioned that without enough gas-fired capacity, the gains made through renewables investments could be lost. He said: “Gas fired thermal plants are the quick fix to stabilising the baseline of the grid, given the swings in renewables. “If you don’t have the gas-fired plants there today, no matter how much renewable investment we are doing, we are going backwards.”
Panelists called for a dual-track investment strategy that would keep expanding solar generation and domestic manufacturing, but also maintain and upgrade gas-fired plants.
They urged the federal government and private investors to align policies and financing to support both tracks.
Also, speakers recommended investment in grid infrastructure to get the new generation to consumers. They urged the implementation of digitalised smart-grid systems for real-time dispatch of power, and the construction of more high-voltage transmission lines to ensure that newly generated electricity does not remain stranded.
The panelists said that linking increased solar capacity, continued gas support and better transmission and digital controls would be needed to convert increased generation into a dependable supply for millions of households across Nigeria.