Renewable energy potentials in Nigeria

Nigeria is an energy resource rich country, endowed with abundance of renewable energy (RE) resources, providing her with great capacity to develop an effective national energy plan. However, Nigeria is yet to exploit these huge available energy potentials with less environmental and climatic impacts. On the contrary, the National energy supply is at present almost entirely dependent on fossil fuels and firewood. These two are being depleted due to failure to harness other energy resources. Substantial progress has taken place in the use of the major rivers in Nigeria and their tributaries to provide hydropower for the country. The total technically exploitable hydropower potential based on the country’s river system is conservatively estimated to be about 10,000 MW of which only 19% is being tapped or developed. Currently, solar, wind, biomass, etc are in abundance all year round in Nigeria and largely untapped. For an energy source to be renewed, it means that its harvesting, conversion and use would occur in a sustainable manner and avoid any negative impacts on the people and natural environment. Renewable energy (RE) reality in Nigeria will be dependent on adequate government policy, financial and technical capability and public acceptance for their installation. Renewable energy (RE) resources abound in Nigeria but have not been fully exploited. This presentation examines the state of energy production and utilization; discusses the potentials for renewable energy and major obstacles militating against their developments. The paper also looked at the progress made by Government to remove formal bureaucratic bottlenecks in the sector and consequently attract private sectors to participate.