Kunle Kalejaye
23 June 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The Nigeria Economic Summit Group, NESG has pushed for the decentralisation of renewable energy generation as a key to resolving the country’s energy challenges.
Chairman of NESG Board of Directors, Mr. Kyari Bukar who stated this at a stakeholder roundtable on Nigeria’s energy mix in Lagos said decentralised renewables energy generation will also unlock the agricultural processing clusters that would enhance regional value addition.
Bukar admitted that it will not be an easy task to accomplish as all countries have their own dynamics to consider in terms of agreeing and implementing its energy mix strategy.
He, therefore, added that tackling Nigeria’s energy constraint as a nation would require identification of its energy mix and agree on appropriate total energy mix for the next few years and targets to attain the agreed mix.
“If and when we achieve consensus on the right energy mix, comes the role that policy would play in getting us to this destination, as well as the strategic plans to implement the policy and a framework to monitor implementation,” Bukar explained.
He cited Germany as an example of a country that has applied some of these principles in agreeing what it’s energy mix should be as well as applying targets to be met and using their Renewable Energy Act as a key piece of legislation to deploy its energy transition.
In terms of counting the future cost of energy, Bukar said Germany is also a good example of a country that is dealing with the cost of winding down the coal components of its energy mix, with the closure of its first lignite power plant costing between 5.3 to 10 billion Euros that was not provided for at the time the plant was set up.
The Chairman of NESG Board of Directors noted in scaling up their renewable component of the energy mix, Germany deployed resources that are infinite in nature such as solar, wind and biomass to drive their energy requirement.
“The country has been able to increase the contribution of renewable energy from 10 percent in its energy mix to 30 percent between 2005 and 2015 through on-grid and off-grid generation.
“As a matter of fact, on May 15, Renewable Energy supplied almost all of Germany’s power demand and for the first time, supplying 45.5GW out of the 45.8GW demand,” Bukar said.
He explained that Germany’s success at renewable energy has had an effect on the economy including the creation of approximately 400,000 jobs noting that Nigeria can achieve the same feat.
“Just as Germany has a key piece of legislation called the Renewable Energy Act, that is driving its energy transition, Nigeria has its own Renewable Energy Policy that was launched in April 2015.
“Critical elements of both policies are similar and my thought would be for us collectively to set out to implement the policy,” Bukar said.