Govt begins mapping of 774 councils for renewable energy

• EU, Germany commit 24.5m Euros to support programme

TOWARDS achieving a generating capacity of 40,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020, Nigeria has commenced the mapping of the 774 local councils in search of renewable energy sources that could be explored as part of the energy mix.

This is coming as the German Government set aside the sum of nine million Euros in support of the Nigerian-German Energy Support Programme, which first phase is expected to run from 2013 to 2016.

The European Union (EU) has also earmarked about 15.5 million Euros for the support programme, German officials hinted yesterday.

Speaking on the development in Abuja Wednesday, government regretted that power output was still inadequate and constitutes a major roadblock to the nation’s socio-economic wellbeing and progress.

Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, who spoke at the workshop on Nigeria-German Energy Support Programme, stressed that despite the hiccups, the current power sector transformation was on course to meet the challenges.

According to him, “To meet the Vision 2020 target, a wider diversification of the energy supply mix of the Nigerian energy sources must be considered. In the past, there had been an epileptic mix of renewable energy resources.

“The level of renewable energy implementation in Nigeria is minimal, but the nation is endowed with significant quantities of renewable energy sources like sun, wind, biomass, dams for hydropower generation.”

“There are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) projects on energy mapping going on in the 774 council areas of the federation. In spite of these little efforts in the area of renewable energy, Nigeria is still deficient in human and institutional capacity development.”

Nebo added: “Currently, efforts are being made to explore various renewable energy sources for viability. Renewable energy policies are being developed for future and effective take-off of renewable energy/energy efficiency in Nigeria.

“Affordable tariffs and structures are being put in place to encourage foreign and private investors. We need partners to help us develop and enhance our human capacity in renewable energy and energy efficiency, and support our efforts in rural electrification.”

Meanwhile, the Senior Energy Adviser at the German Agency for International Cooperation, Klaus Mitzlaff, stressed that Nigeria is endowed with rich resources of fossil fuel and natural gas and has a high potential in renewable energy.

He sad the EU funding for the energy programme, which would be approved in the second quarter of this year, would significantly broaden the scope of the support programme in the area of rural electrification in extended geographical outreach, and in even wider capacity development and technical expertise.