Nigerian-Germany Energy coordinator lauds Nigeria’s solar energy plans

The Coordinator of the Nigerian-German Energy partnership, Dr. Jeremy Gaines, has lauded the Federal Government’s 13,000MW plans for electricity through solar energy over the next few decades, which was enunciated at the Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP 21), in Paris, France, Vanguard reports.

Dr. Gaines said; “A massive roll-out of on and off-grid solar power is one of the areas that the Nigerian German Energy Partnership and Germany’s GIZ (through its Nigerian Energy Support Plan) has consistently advocated. “Through GIZ the German government has been busy supporting Nigeria with getting all the homework done to enable a strong rise in off-grid solar PV systems”.

“The Paris climate summit has put longer-term financing mechanisms in place to assist here. Such a roll-out is especially meaningful if integrated with the deployment of agricultural facilities (irrigation pumps, etc.) as this could be a key to unlocking socio-economic growth in particular in the North of the country”.

“It is probably too early to set concrete targets for the volume of off-grid solar until the various technical and financing challenges have been overcome. But the Minister’s determination to push the development of such systems shows the administration’s welcome resolve to embark down this path,” he added.