Fashola inaugurates Japanese 1.2MW solar power donation to Nigeria
Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, on Tuesday commissioned a 1.2 megawatts (MW) solar power plant donated to Nigeria by the Japanese government.
Fashola, who is working on raising Nigeria’s power profile through various energy mixes, inspected the plant at Lower Usama, Bwari Abuja.
“We want to get incremental power first, short-term objective. Energy anywhere, we can get it because the energy is not enough,” he said in an interview.
“Five thousand megawatts, which was our peak production in February this year, is not enough for a country of over 100 million people. We will get it from everywhere — from gas, solar, hydro from nuclear and biomass.”
The Solar Power Plant in Abuja
Nigeria, which currently generates less than 5,000MW of power, is billed to raise its energy profile to at least 6,000MW by the end of 2016.
According to President Muhammadu Buhari, “Nigerians’ favourite talking point and butt of jokes is the power situation in our country. But, ladies and gentlemen, it is no longer a laughing matter.
“We must and by the grace of God we will put things right. In the three years left for this administration we have given ourselves the target of ten thousand megawatts distributable power.
“In 2016 alone, we intend to add two thousand megawatts to the national grid. This sector has been privatised but has yet to show any improvement in the quality of service.”
Power generation is noted by the World Bank Doing Business report as one of the major hindrances to doing business in Nigeria.
Nigeria – always interested in handout and hand me down. Why can’t Nigeria buy about 5000mw of these solar panels? Always interested in free stuff. Fashola should order 5000mw of these solar panels.
Are you serious??!!!…a whole minister inaugurating a mere 1.2MW?? I actually thought it was for 120MW…are we supposed to be excited about 1.2MW when the country needs at least 40,000MW…is this the low bar we have set for events worth wasting our leaders’ time on and celebrating??…so very sad indeed
It use to cost $1b TO INSTALL 1,000 MW.Now it costs $1.5b MW. That is $7.5b we are talking about. At exchange rate of N315/$, that comes to N2.4 trillion. Our 2016 budget is N6 trillion on everything.
I am interested in installing solar power for my home.
Where can we get good quality solar power componets: solar panels, Good quality batteries for storing the energy, high quality inverters, etc.
I also suggest that the Federal Government should subsidise the cost of the installation to encourage those that are interested.
In my own view, I think govt should encourage individuals who are keen to invest in solar or Renewable Energy(RE) by giving them tax credit on their PAYE for the amount invested in RE.
The other incentive is to upgrade the national grid system to accept electricity from solar system installed in homes. This way I can, for example, supply to the grid excess electricity that I generate above my requirements and should get credit back from PHCN.
These duo will encourage investment in RE and will allow the grid to supply electricity efficiently to those who choose to rely 100% on PHCN.
This will buy govt sometimes to get the power system right. Once power become uninterruptible, almost everybody can then migrate back to PHCN as PHCN is far cheaper than solar. FYI PHCN charges N21.30k/Kwh. Solar will give you well over times 2.