Stakeholders Task FG On Renewable Energy

Stakeholders in the renewable energy sub-sector have urged the Federal Government to provide an enabling environment to engender the sustainable Energy for All’ (SE4ALL) benchmark set by the government.
The Campaign Director for Power For All in Nigeria, Ify Malo, said that the Federal Government should decentralize the subsector as to augment the weakened national gird as well as improve energy access in the country.
She said: “Decentralised renewable are the fastest, most cost-effective path to modern energy services in emerging market and they remain a potent platform for job growth and are an impact multiplier for more resilient and self-sufficient economics.
“More importantly in the case of Nigeria, decentralized renewable can act as a buffer to the weakened grid and accelerate energy access across the country”.
Also, emeka Okpukpara of the Nextier Power said the ongoing economic recession, especially the decline in Nigeria’s foreign exchange rate happen to be the most sufficient challenge faced by Nigeria’s renewable energy industry in 2016.
He expressed worry that while the cost of delivering renewable energy, such as solar panels is declining globally, there has been a near doubling in price of these components over the last 12 months in Nigeria.
Okpukpara noted that, there are fears of significant delays in completing the solar power plants.
“Given that most renewable energy components are imported, the current FOREX exchanges are negatively impacting the implementation plans of several of the aforementioned renewable energy companies”, he said.
The co-ordinator, Nigerian-German Energy partnership, Mr Jeremy Gaines, said that there is need for the government to encourage more construction and development in renewable energy.
“We should see the construction of utility-scale solar PV plants. More will be needed if the Federal Governments to meet the benchmark it has set for itself in the SE4ALL strategy.
However, as in 2016 the key issue will be the availability of currency to pay for the technology and the availability of loans for prospective owners”, he said.