Tuesday 22 October 2013

9 Northern states to get 420mw solar energy

The Federal Government is set to provide
420 megawatts of electricity using solar energy
for nine states in the northern part of the country. The Secretary, National Energy Council, Alhaji
Ibrahim Njiddah, made this known at a
stakeholders meeting in Abuja on Monday. Njiddah said the project would be implemented
under the Nigerian-German Energy Partnership-
Renewable Energy and Efficient Energy Projects
(REEPS). The Federal Government in 2008 signed an
agreement with Germany to invest 20 million
euros to increase energy efficiency by about
6,500mw through a mix of power generation
sources. Under the project, German Government is to
provide 500mw of solar energy to be spread
across the northern states of the country within
five years. According to him, the pilot scheme, which is
expected to cover all the northern states of the
country, will commence in nine states. The states are: Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno,
Gombe, Kaduna, Kano Nasarawa and Sokoto. He said each of the states had indicated interest in
getting 30mw solar plant with the exception of
Kano and Nasarawa which wanted three or four
plants situated in different parts of their states. Njiddah said each plant would cost between 50
million and 60 million dollars. The secretary said the project was borne out of
the desire to tap the abundant solar energy in the
northern part of the country. He said the project was being implemented in line
with the Power Reform Act which stipulates that 5
per cent of power generation must come from
renewable energy by 2020. “It is in the pursuit of this that we now consider
that we can generate power from other sources
apart from conventional thermal power
generation. “This is economically and environmentally
efficient and also serves as another source of
revenue for the beneficiary state governments
using renewable energy for power generation. “It is also an opportunity for us, and especially the
tertiary institutions, to acquire skills in the area of
capacity building and expansion, employment
generation in thousands, wealth creation, among
others,’’ he said. He said the project was based on scientific
investigation which indicated substantial solar
energy in the northern states capable of
stimulating economic growth and creating
employment opportunities. The Chairman of the Infrastructure Bank Plc, Alhaji
Lamis Dikko, said the bank was appointed by the
Federal Government as the transaction advisor
and local financier arranger for the project. “Our role is to help the Nigeria-German energy
partnership to structure the project, find local
investors that will invest in the projects and to
ensure proper project management in line with
international best practice. “We bring together all the developers who have
indicated interest in developing power plants and
all the state governments that have indicated
interest to have solar power in their states “We bring together all the stakeholders and come
up with a road map and choose which project will
be the pilot project,’’ he said. Dr Jeremy Gaines, Coordinator, Nigerian-German
Energy Partnership, led other German developers
to the meeting. Gaines said Germany was committed to ensure
that the northern part of the country got adequate
power supply through solar energy, and assured
that the project would be completed within time.
(NAN)

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