BABILOWN~Mawolè: Alternative Energy : Nigeria Begins Solar Panels Production

13 décembre 2011

Alternative Energy : Nigeria Begins Solar Panels Production

Quick – who is Africa’s largest oil exporter, who is also interested in solar power?

Nigeria.

According to Nigerian National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure Director-General Olusegun Adewoye, about 40 rural information technology centers established by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NASEI), will be powered by photovoltaic solar panels manufactured in Nigeria, a first for Africa.

Towards that end, Nigeria’s NASEI has established a 7.5 megawatt joint venture solar panel manufacturing plant in Karshi, Abuja.

Adewoye told reporters, "The National Information Technology Development Agency is setting up internet centers all over the country and we are expecting in three or two days an award to power 40 of those rural internet centers with our solar panels. This is something they would have imported from somewhere else."

A NASEI source speaking off the record disclosed that NASEI would be a major supplier for power equipment in the Rural Information Technology Centers (RITCs), commenting, "They will be our major supplier. The National Information Technology Development Agency has inspected their plant and they have tendered (for provision contracts). With the solar panels, we will be assured of constant power supply there. Despite the fact that we are not in the same ministry, there is still high synergy between us."

According to NASEI Director-General Cleopas Angaye, the agency’s agenda in promoting solar power was not only to furnish impoverished rural communities with electricity in order to provide them with an increased standard of living, but also to allow them access to relevant Internet information that could change their lives while providing social, professional and economic opportunities for people living in rural areas.

Angaye commented, "The agency through the rural information technology centers aims to facilitate rapid socio- economic growth through access to Information Communications and Technology facilities, eradicate computer illiteracy and increase the level of understanding of the value of Information Communications and Technology among all communities especially the rural areas. It will provide a platform for delivering e-government services and facilitating the achievement of the millennium development goals."

Adewoye added that apart from powering the RITCs, the solar panel manufacturing plant would be useful for domestic purposes, street lighting, water pumping for irrigation purposes, powering electrical repeater stations and telecommunication boosting stations as well as powering local traffic lights.

Nigeria’s central government also has ambitious Internet plans, as NASEI intends to collaborate with the 36 state governments to provide Internet access and computer centers throughout the nation’s 774 local governments.

continued