Solar shouldn't be the primary source of electricity for Nigerians

Witnessing thousands of homes invest in Solar Energy systems as their primary source of electricity is weakening the pressure to secure national grid stability.

grid sheak

I visited South Africa a few weeks ago and a major take-back (well I knew about this prior to visiting, wrote on SA loadshedding here)…well the major take-back was when it got to mins pass 8pm, the entire municipality of Cape Town went pitch black. At some point, all you could see were the lucky houses who had invested in solar systems before the load shedding crunch down or had enough buck to purchase solar as the city faced an energy crisis joining the other millions of Africa’s without reliable electricity.

Here’s where the case in South Africa might be different to Nigeria’s - South Africans all knew what the problem was and they understood it (well the technical aspects). Eskom, the electricity operator if you like - attempts to be as transparent as possible by providing city focused mobile applications that keep citizens aware of a black out any time, every single day. So at 8pm as we drove through The Mother City - Cape Town and I noticed the city felt darker than previous nights; my SA resident buddies knew what time it was - Loadshedding.

My dad tells me at some time, Nigerians had this ‘prompt’ well it was more of a notice - it went off on the radios and sometimes national news ( was it just on NTA? if you know better leave me a comment please) and it would say something along the lines of ‘between this time and this time, there will be no power supply for this and that reason…’ (I wonder if they apologized for the power shortage..) Anyways, Nigeria once had that notice, it wasn’t an app like what they’ve got in South Africa but it reached those who had to know - households will not have electricity.

It’s now 2023…July and I still have to ensure when I have late meetings - I either have my inverter charged on standby and or hope the power does not trip off unexpectedly living me and my screens in darkness even if for those mini seconds before the switch.

So why I do not subscribe to households using solar as primary source of electricity in any peri-/urban city in Nigeria?

1. Energy security: during the pandemic, when borders closed especially in China. Nigerians struggled to get vaccines, and solar systems. The continent at large barely manufactures enough innovative technology so much less solar systems to supply all of the 600 million African living without access to energy. So if Nigerians are going to rely on solar panels, batteries, inverter machines etc. - best we could do is manufacture them ? (oh yeah not possible, why? not enough electricity to maintain production lines…)

2. Nigeria is generating enough power, the issue is how it gets to you. As with many resources…Gas? we get am plenty. Gas - a major feedstock for electricity generation in Nigeria is richly available, and the country holds in top 10 largest gas reserves; the idea that we must have a solar company on speed-dial incase the inverter knocks up is outrageous.

3. No one is going to solve the problems if Nigerians always settle… So showing the government ‘things are okay’ we’d just ‘invest’ in solar systems is a down hill battle. And what happens to those who don’t have a quarter million to ‘invest’ in solar. The matter is complicated - ask your next Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry buddy (which is possibly me, so i’ll find time to break down what’s wrong with the grid or share digestible content)

   Power transmission has been a major problem in Nigeria- the country has persistently witnessed transmission grid collapse. In 2022, the national grid collapsed over 10 times necessitating a national blackout on every occasion. While Nigeria has a generation capacity of 22000 megawatts, the country can only transmit about 4000 to 6000 megawatts of electricity.

4. Back to the basics… when Solar began dominating the energy market they were targeted at rural or peri-urban communities. So households and facilities that in no time near would see a blink of grid supply, had the solar advantage.

5. It is not sustainable for everyday use. Charging inverters/batteries to use back to back makes the systems less durable overtime. Who has quarter million + to spend intermittently. Nigerians seem to have frivolous money for comfort. but that's not the populace. Lack of reliable electricity grid is KILLING many families across peri-urban cities alone.

6. Edit: lastly…e-waste issues. heard of e-waste before? It’s basically what happens at the end-life cycle of electronic devices. Nigeria is already one of the biggest ‘dumping grounds’ in Africa for electronic waste…then add Solar panels, inverters, batteries, connectors (which need to be replaced quite often; in 2 years I’ve changed my battery 3 x already). You should get the gist, if more people are relying on Solar systems as their primary source of electricity in 10 years - Nigeria might be clogged in e-waste not just from electronic devices but from power systems too. Especially as the global community is still figuring out what to do with at the end life for solar systems. They’re not that easy to reuse either.

I understand time evolves. And the energy transition is posed to keep promoting use of renewable energy over fossil heavy fuels like diesel generators. But truly at what cost to the customers, environment and general economic stability if Nigerians keep giving leadership pass cards by demonstrating that Nigerians are ‘coping’ by importing SHS and using them as primary sources of electricity while connected to the national grid with no national explanation for the failing electricity market design.

To be mused again,
Oghosa