Investing in Renewable Energy to Curb Vandalism

Fri, May 1, 2015
By publisher
3 MIN READ

BREAKING NEWS, Business

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General Muhammadu Buhari, president-elect, can curb gas pipeline vandalism and power failures in the country by investing in renewable source of energy to generate more electricity

By Anayo Ezugwu  |  May 11, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT  |

CHINEDU Nebo, minister of power, is advising the incoming administration of Muhammadu Buhari, president-elect to encourage investors with interest in other sources of electricity generation in the country in order to generate enough power to end the perennial outages in the country. Nebo said concentration of future investments on coal, solar and waste could guarantee that the efforts by President Goodluck Jonathan administration at increasing electricity generation and supply are sustained.

Investments in these alternative electricity sources could minimise abysmal sabotage on the power systems, which he noted was crippling government’s efforts at improving power supply in Nigeria. Nebo offered the advice at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, between NOVARTUS Gas Limited and the government for the generation of power through renewable energy sources across Nigeria.

Renewable energy sources will remain critical to Nigeria’s survival, considering that there are minimal threats of vandalism to them as against what currently obtains in the gas-pipelines. This is germane because of the loss government suffer because of the constant bursting of pipelines by miscreants everywhere in the creeks of the Niger Delta. Renewable sources of power could break the jinx and provide the required leap to the supply chain of electricity.

Vandalism has forced power supply to hover around 3,600 megawatts despite efforts the present administration made to improve on its generation capacity. “Our vulnerability to sabotage with regards to pipeline vandalism is so high,” Nebo said, adding that a policy for Nigeria on renewable energy and energy efficiency would soon be approved by the Federal Executive Council, FEC, for use in the country.

The document will provide the needed structure and framework for investors to take advantage of renewable electricity sources in the country. It would also contain incentives to be enjoyed by would-be investors desirous of producing power using renewable energy sources. He also assured that when it is operational, more opportunities would be opened up in small and medium sized hydro, biomass, wind and solar power to help Nigeria out of her decrepit power supply regime.

While requesting the consortium to visit Vietnam to understudy her small hydro technology, which he said, is being operated efficiently, Nebo said, “Using small hydros, Vietnam provides energy in its remote areas for small clusters of industries and farming communities.” He added that the federal government is seeking for more embedded power plants scattered across the country to check the alarming poor electricity supply.

Nebo said government was determined to accelerate access to power for both domestic and industrial uses, noting that embedded power generation was one of the most vital ways of solving the nation’s electricity problem. According to him, the production of 20mw each of the embedded power plants spread across 50 sites across the country, will contribute immensely in alleviating the power challenges of the nation, as it would be easier, cheaper and quicker to harness as against the setting up of a 400mw-500mw capacity plant in terms of time, space and cost.

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