Nigeria, Energy Poverty and Renewable Energy

By `Lanre Okanlawon

Nigeria’s decision to attain 7 percent renewable energy use by 2025 has been tagged to be a very proactive commitment. An important fact to note is that more than 60 percent of the nation’s population is not connected to the national grid and the remaining population can only boast of epileptic power supply. 

Apart from the ill state of existing generation, distribution and supply network in Africa’s most populous country and second largest economy, decades of ineffective institutional framework and appropriate policies have been responsible for the increasing levels of energy poverty. So many questions remain unanswered as it becomes clearer day by day that Nigeria is under-performing in terms of the provision of power security to its 160 million people. To further unlock the nation’s economical and industrial potentials and attract more foreign investments, new scientific breakthroughs in efficiency and delivery of alternative energy technologies have to be taken advantage of. 

The country’s present over-dependence on gas fired generation plants has resulted in supply disruptions in times of gas shortages which are very common occurrences. The need for alternative power generation options cannot be overstated considering the country’s current demand for power. In 2011, Nigeria emerged as the country with the largest gap between demand and supply of electricity in the world according to a progress report submitted by the country’s presidential task force committee on power reforms. This is definitely inadequate to stimulate economic growth. 

Nigeria’s abundant renewable energy resources led by solar energy, biomass and wind energy have been largely neglected and it’s high time these were actively employed to provide the necessary power generation levels. Nigeria’s power demand is reported to grow at a rate of 8.2 percent annually. Any additional generation sources with economical justifications should be highly considered. 

Nigeria is faced with an enormous task; the need for greater electricity supply with improved grid reliability and security. Energy poverty is never synonymous with any form of national development. Nigeria definitely has plenty of work to be done in this regard as it takes more than making upbeat pronouncements to be among the top 20 nations in the world by the year 2020.

Solar-powered office building, Doxford International Business Park, near Sunderland, United Kingdom. 

The 3500sqm solar office building at the Doxford International Business Park near Sunderland, UK incorporates 646sqm of photovoltaic modules. These have a peak power output of 73kW and generate some 55,000kWh of electricity per year. The building is well insulated and uses passive solar design to maximise the use of natural daylight and to minimise space heating and air conditioning needs. it is also designed for natural ventilation and night-time cooling.

Photovoltaics may well make a significant contribution to world needs in coming decades, but at present its share of world consumption is small. This is mainly due to the very high cost of PV modules, which are currently produced in relatively small quantities. Studies have shown that if the annual output of the manufacturing plants that produce PV modules were increased by a factor of about 20, the cost of PV-generated electricity could be reduced to a point at which it would be competitive with electricity from conventional sources in many industrialised countries.

Liquid Air Could Be The Fuel Of The Future

By Admin

Imagine owning a car that runs on air. Impossible, you reckon? Think again. The car in the video below does exactly this.

Scientists in Britain are developing a new technology that uses normal air to store energy by reducing its temperature to as low as minus 190 degrees Celsius turning it into liquid air. 

This is definitely good news especially with the ever increasing costs of fuel and environmental pollution issues associated with fossil fuels.

Sources: YouTube, Sky News

Chanel Invokes Green Energy of Fashion

By 'Lanre Okanlawon

Echoes of renewable energy were constantly heard earlier today in Grand Palais, Paris as Chanel sent her gorgeous fashion models on a blue solar panel pattern runway surrounded by towering white wind turbines at its new spring-summer look. 

Chanel Spring/Summer 2013

Karl Lagerfeld welcomed fashion enthusiasts, including Jennifer Lopez and her daughter, Emme to the grand show. “Energy is the most important thing in life”, he said enthusiastically, commenting about solar panels and wind turbines. If I had to build a house, I would put them in the garden,” he concluded.

How to Go Green

By Jacob Gordon

The cost of electricity is going up (both in dollars and in environmental and health impacts) and it doesn't show any signs of doing otherwise. About half of the energy in the American grid is coal generated. We won't bore you with what you already know: coal is a really stinky, dangerous, nasty, unsustainable, and silly way to make power. 

By using less energy, and greening the electricity that we do use, we can lighten our footprint immensely. The subject of electricity and its environmental impacts is a massive one and we can't cover every corner of it here; hopefully, this brief guide can offer some solid suggestions for greening your electricity and use thereof.

Audit yourself

A home energy audit is a way to inventory your home's energy use, where energy is lost, and where it can be saved. You can do an energy audit yourself or get a pro. Many utilities also offer home and business energy audits for free.

Reduce your use 

The lowest hanging fruit just begging to be picked are simple energy-saving practices. They're also the most cost effective. Top tasks include:

a. Replace your light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) or even cutting-edge light emitting diodes (LEDs).

b. Turn off lights and other devises when they're not needed.

Eliminating electronics that sleep on a standby setting; they continue to pull a current even when "turned off."

"Wall warts," those clunky AC adaptors on many power cables, pull current, too, so those should be taken out of the wall when not in use -- this is also known as phantom power. Your best bet is a "smart" power strip, or a power strip that can be turned off at night.

Clothes driers gobble up a lot of power, so line drying can be a great energy saver.

Put your house on a diet 

Homes consume an enormous amount of energy, especially in heating and cooling, and American homes consume around six times the world average. Once you've audited your home for energy use (even if you haven't) some simple moves can cut your electricity bill. Keep your house cool with natural ventilation instead of air conditioning as much as possible. Use in-room, ceiling, or whole-house fans to move air throughout the house. Blocking sunlight during hot hours of the day can help lower your cooling load. If your house uses electricity for water heating, wrapping your water tank in an insulating blanket can save on power. Also, if your house is heated with electricity, see How to Go Green: Heating for more in-depth advice.

The Heat Revolution

By `Lanre Okanlawon

It’s nearly here. The much awaited Renewable Heat Incentive!

After so many months of speculations, official papers have been released for the cash incentive scheme to “reward” households who key into the use of eligible “green technologies” for heating. The RHI will be in place to reward households who meet their space heating and/or hot water needs by using new and renewable energy technologies such as heat pumps (air source and ground source), biomass and solar thermal panels. At the moment, more than 1.5 million UK households use boilers and a recent poll suggests that at least one in every five household plans to replace their existing boiler.

The latest Government announcement indicates that the scheme will commence in summer 2013 and the subsidy payments will be paid over a period of 7 years. The rates are 6.9p-11.5p for air source heat pumps, 12.5p-17.3p for ground source heat pumps, 5.2p-8.7p for biomass boilers and 17.3p for solar thermal panels. These will be paid per estimated units of power generation in kilowatt hours (kWh).

For a house that has an air source heat pump (9kW) that costs about £8,000 to install, the owner will receive roughly £880 yearly in RHI payments for seven years, in addition to a continuous annual savings of about £390. This means the initial installation costs will be realized in about ten years!

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