'NORTH CAN PROVIDE 30% OF NIGERIA'S ENERGY REQUIREMENT'

The representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to Nigeria and Regional Director, Africa, Dr. Patrick Kormawa, has said that  the Northern part of Nigeria has enough sunlight to contribute over 30 percent of the nation's energy requirement.

Kormawa said this during the opening ceremony of a capacity building workshop in Retscreen Clean Energy Project Analysis in Nigeria, organised by UNIDO Regional Centre for Small Hydro Power in Africa (UNIDO-RC-SHP) in collaboration with stakeholders in the energy sector in Abuja.

He said: 'Apart from protecting the environment, the renewable energy brings us to the forefront because it is energy that is available everywhere in our continent and we can easily afford it.

'For instance, in the case of water, at least every country except those in the Sahelian countries have access to water bodies; some of these water bodies have streams and current that can be transformed into hydro electricity.

'For Solar, when you talk about Africa, even here in Nigeria, the Northern part of this country has   enough sunlight to make sure that the contribute to about 20/30% of our energy requirement, so it is an  energy that is available. The third, bio mass, gotten from agricultural waste, from saw dust, from farms, can also be used to generate energy.'

Kormawa highlighted that UNIDO and other energy stakeholders held the workshop to train people in a methodology and assimilation model which can be used in planning renewable energy projects.

In his remarks, Director General (DG) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), Prof. Abubakar Sambo said that the main focus of the training was on RETScreen - Small Hydro Project model which can be used to evaluate the energy production, amongst others for central-grid, isolated-grid and off-grid small hydro projects.