What is Renewable Energy?
Renewable energy in Nigeria refers to the energy that comes from renewable resources.
It is also referred to as clean energy and it comes from natural sources or processes that are constantly replenished.
For example, sunlight or wind keep shining and blowing, even if their availability depends on time and weather.
Types of Renewable energy includes solar, wind, hydro, oceanic, geothermal, biomass, and other sources of energy that indefinitely renew itself in nature.
Forms of useable energy include electricity, hydrogen, fuels, thermal energy and mechanical force.
Beginning of Renewable Energy
While renewable energy is often thought of as a new technology, man has been harnessing nature’s power for a very long time.
We have been using renewable energy for heating, transportation, lighting, and more.
For instance, man has been using wind to propel boats to sail the seas and windmills to grind grain.
Also, man harness the sun to provide warmth during the day and help kindle fires to last into the evening.
But over the past 500 years or so, humans have been increasingly turning away to cheaper, dirtier energy.
Such energy sources like coal and fracked gas have greatly affected our climate and weather conditions.
Now that technology is helping the world to increasingly innovative and uses less-expensive ways to capture and retain wind and solar energy, renewables are becoming a more important power source.
In the U.S.A, for instance, renewable energy sources account for more than one-eighth of US total energy generation.
The expansion in renewables is also happening at scales large and small, from rooftop solar panels on homes that can sell power back to the grid to giant offshore wind farms.
Even some entire rural communities rely on renewable energy for heating and lighting.
What are the Sources of Renewable Energy in Nigeria?
Nigeria has an abundance of various renewable energy resources.
However, Nigeria generates a small amount of energy from only four main renewable energy sources. They are
- Hydropower
- Solar
- Wind
- Biomass
Status of Renewable energy in Nigeria
Electricity distribution is holding Nigeria back.
Electricity shortages significantly impede Nigeria’s economic growth.
Some parts of the country have little or no access to the national grid.
Meanwhile, in other areas electricity is only available for short and varying periods of the day.
Renewable energy penetration in Nigeria is still in its beginning stage.
The only source of renewable energy in the country is hydro-power and biomass.
Even though there is the presence of wind and solar energy, they have only been deployed in a minimal amount.
To date, fossil fuels entirely dominate the national energy supply in Nigeria.
Renewable energy resources are grossly underutilised in the country despite their availability in reasonable quantities.
Government Contribution to the Development of Renewable Energy
Even though many homes have been using renewable energy sources prior to this time, the Nigerian government, in 2003, introduced renewable energy as part of its national energy policy.
Successful implementation should result in the installation of enough wind, solar PV, solar thermal, and hydroelectricity sources by 2025 to provide the equivalent of the entire grid capacity in use in Nigeria today.