IMPROVED AVAILABILITY OF CLEAN NON GRID
ENERGY IN NIGERIA THROUGH THE USE OF
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES AND ENERGY
EFFICIENCY PRINCIPLES
Prof Titilayo A. Kuku,
Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering,
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,
Nigeria. +2348062541929,
titilakuku@yahoo.com, takuku@oauife.edu.ng.
Talk Layout
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Introduction
Energy Resources
Problems Associated with Poor Energy State in Nigeria
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
Renewable Energy Resources in Nigeria
Various Aspects of Renewable Energies (Solar, Wind, Hydro
and Biomass Electricity)
Energy Demand and Supply Projections
Renewable Energy Policies
Obstacles to Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency
Development in Nigeria
Socio-Economic Impacts of the Deployment of renewable
Electricity
Conclusion
Introduction
 Energy
is an essential ingredient for the development and
economic growth of any country. Energy access is also key
to poverty alleviation and has been shown to facilitate
other development indicators. The United Nations has
emphasised that access to affordable, modern energy
services is essential for the attainment of sustainable
development and the Millennium Development Goals
(MDG’s).
 That Nigeria is currently facing an energy crisis is an
understatement. With the current generated capacity of
about 4,000MW, for a population of about 170 million,
with an energy per capita of 30 Watts, the country is in a
dire state regarding energy sufficiency with the attendant
consequences on all developmental indicators of
employment, growth, production, cost of production,
security, general wellbeing e.t.c.
Introduction Ctd
This unfortunate situation has brought to the fore, the
need to explore alternatives to close the wide gap
between demand for and supply of energy services in
Nigeria.
 Energy poverty in Nigeria is acute with only 47% of the
populace having access to epileptic electricity and about
10% of the population not connected to the grid.
 Majority of the people in the rural area do not have
access to electricity resulting in most of them using
traditional biomass as source of energy.
 Even in urban areas of Nigeria, 56% of the population
still use firewood while 27% use kerosene as household
energy.
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Problems Associated with Current Poor Energy State in Nigeria
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Lack of and inadequate investment in the energy sector by
successive government in the past
The monopolistic nature of power generation and delivery which
has effectively shut out private capital and investment
Low level awareness of alternative options such as renewable
energy solutions
Dearth of finance and access to finance for rural poor
Apathy of financial institutions to support investments in clean
energy options
Low incentives and inadequate government policies to promote the
development of renewable energy at the same level as electricity
and petroleum/gas
Continuous subsidy of conventional fossil fuel by government
Problems Ctd
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Poor business environment for renewable energy
options.
Shift from traditional to modern sources of energy and
upgrade the unsustainable supply of biomass (mainly
wood) energy to a sustainable provision of wood
energy Meet the demand for energy as a result of
industrialization and population increase
Develop/improve energy efficiency practices
Deemphasize investment in large hydro and increase
investment in sustainable, decentralized renewable
sources
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Promotion of renewable energy and energy
efficiency in Nigeria will address the challenges
highlighted above.
Renewable energies are cleaner sources of energy, and
therefore are sustainable form of energy.
Renewable energies can continuously be harvested
because they are inexhaustible in supply and have been
considered by most developing countries as an essential
component of extending access to affordable energy.
Small-scale distributed renewable energy systems can
help to alleviate energy poverty in many communities
cut off from centralized grid electricity.
It will help to reduce the importation of oil bringing
benefit to local and national economies.
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
Renewable energy and energy efficiency have been
recognised as the twin pillars of energy security
especially in our quest to address the poor state of
energy supply.
 While renewable energy focuses on generating energy
from natural, renewable and sustainable sources such as
solar, small hydro, wind and biomass,
 energy efficiency on the other hand aims at achieving
the efficient utilisation of the available energy supply
through energy efficient methods and technologies.
 It is generally agreed that ’’energy saved is energy
generated’’, so avoiding wastages in energy usage
translates immediately into energy generation.
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Renewable Energy Resources In Nigeria
Nigeria is endowed with abundant
renewable energy resources that can be
deployed for electricity provision.
 This paper will focus on the most
important ones and these include: solar,
wind, small/large hydro and biomass.
 Table 1 gives an outline of the resource
potentials of renewable energy sources in
Nigeria.
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Table 1Renewable Energy Potentials in Nigeria
Source: ENERGY COMMISSION OF NIGERIA
Resource
Potential
Remark
Large Hydropower
11,500 MW
1972 MW exploited
Small Hydropower
3,500 MW
64.2 MW exploited
Solar
4.0 kW/m/day – 6.5 kW/m2/day
Refer to solar radiation map
Sunshine Hrs
(4-7.5)hrs/day
Wind
2-4 m/s @ 10m height mainland
Electronic Wind Information system
(WIS) available
Biomass
-Municipal Waste
-18.5million tonnes produced in 2005
(non-fossil organic matter)
-Fuelwood
-43.4 million
consumption
Animal Waste
245 million assorted in 2001
-Agric Residue
-91.4million tonnes /yr produced
-Energy crops
-28.2 million hectares of arable land;
8.5% cultivated
tonnes/yr
fuelwood
Solar Electricity
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Nigeria lies within a high sunshine belt and thus has enormous solar
energy potentials. The mean annual average of total solar radiation varies
from about 3.5 kWhm–2day-1 in the coastal latitudes to about 7 kWhm–
2day-1 along the semi arid areas in the far North.
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Given an average solar radiation level of about 5.5 kWhm–2day-1, and the
prevailing efficiencies of commercial solar-electric generators, then if
solar collectors or modules were used to cover 1% of Nigeria’s land
area of 923,773km2, it is possible to generate 1850x103 GWh of solar
electricity per year. This is over one hundred times the current grid
electricity consumption level in the country.
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Solar electricity can be generated from any of two possibilities, either
through the interface of thermal converting systems (photothermal) or
the interface with solar cells (photovoltaics). The photovoltaic aspect
would be stressed in this paper because of its relative simplicity for
adoption in rural regions of Nigeria.
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Solar electricity may be used for power supply to remote villages
and locations not connected to the national grid.
It may also be used to generate power for feeding into the national grid.
Other areas of application of solar electricity include low and medium
power application such as: water pumping, village electrification, rural
clinic and schools power supply, vaccine refrigeration, traffic lighting and
lighting of road signs, etc.
Several pilot projects, surveys and studies have been undertaken by the
Sokoto Energy Research Center (SERC) and the National Center for
Energy Research and Development (NCERD) under the supervision of
the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN).
Several PV-water pumping, electrification, and solar-thermal installations
have been put in place.
Model villages that run on sustainable photovoltaic energy have also
been developed across the nation.
Over the past 13 years, the Energy Commission of Nigeria, World Bank,
some states governments of Bauchi, Benue, Bayelsa, Akwa- Ibom, Delta,
Taraba, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Zamfara, Rivers, and Nassarawa, the Education
Tax Fund, and some few other organizations like United States
Department of Energy and Jigawa Alternative Energy Trust Fund have
sponsored the installation of many pilot solar energy systems for use to
various communities across the country.
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For these deployments one, two or more modules can be situated on a
structure for it to provide the necessary electrical energy for the
running of the basic lightning needs of the village household.
Such systems are referred to as stand alone systems.
Alternatively, a collection of modules (an array) can be assembled to
give a higher energy supply as a common source for the village as
shown in Fig 1.
Such a collection could be taken to be a micro grid system.
The micro grid design is ultra energy efficient, it uses renewable power
generation house which consist of solar panels, thus, four to five panels
are sufficient to power an entire village of 100 households and then use
battery bank to generate power during the day which is consumed at
night, the light is distributed using poles, these poles usually each carry
a street light on it which pass through a village over a short distance
then to household, each household is provided with two to four Light
Emitting Diodes (LED) lights as these villagers choose solar power for
their electric systems.
Apart from the small non grid systems, there are big developments of
solar energy farms like the 50MW solar farm in Kaduna State (Federal
Ministry of Environment).
In aggregate, there are about 10MW Street Lighting and Mini-Grid
projects nationwide (source - ECN).
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Wind Electricity
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Wind, which is an effect from the uneven heating of the earth’s surface
by the sun and its resultant pressure inequalities, is available at annual
average speeds of about 2.0 m/s at the coastal region and 4.0 m/s at the
far northern region of the country. Assuming an air density of 1.1
kg/m3, wind energy intensity, perpendicular to the wind direction,
ranges between 4.4 W/ m2 at the coastal areas and 35.2 W/ m2 at the
far northern region.
Wind energy conversion systems (wind turbines, wind generators, wind
plants, wind machines, and wind dynamos) are devices which convert
the kinetic energy of the moving air to rotary motion of a shaft, that is,
mechanical energy.
The technologies for harnessing this energy have, over the years been
tried in the northern parts of the country, mainly for water pumping
from open wells in many secondary schools of old Sokoto and Kano
States as well as in Katsina, Bauchi and Plateau States. A 5 kW wind
electricity conversion system for village electrification has been
installed at Sayyan Gidan Gada, in Sokoto State. Other areas of
potential application of wind energy conversion systems in Nigeria are
in “green electricity” production for the rural community and for
integration into the national grid system.
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has been reported that an average annual
wind speed of not less than 5 m/s at a height of
10m above ground level is the feasible speed
for the exploitation of wind energy at today’s
cost.
 Tractors and Equipment (T & E), a Division of
the United African Company (UAC), at one
time, produced windmills in Nigeria.
 Promising attempts are being made in Sokoto
Energy Research Centre (SERC) and Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, to develop
capability for the production of wind energy
technologies. Picture of typical deployments of
wind energy are as shown as follows:
Hydroelectricity
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Hydroelectricity refers to the capture of energy from flowing
water, typically rivers, streams and water falls to generate
electricity.
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In Nigeria, where rivers, waterfalls and streams with high potentials
for small hydro power (SHP) development is abundant, harnessing
of these hydro-resources leads to decentralized use and local
implementation and management, thereby making sustainable rural
development possible through self-reliance and the use of local
natural resources. This can be the most affordable and accessible
option to provide off-grid electricity services.
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Based on Nigeria’s level of hydropower development, small
hydropower station is defined as follows: Small = installed capacity
of between 2 MW and 10 MW; Mini ≤ 2 MW ; Micro ≤100 kW .
Schematic of a Small Hydro System
In recent studies carried out in twelve
states and four river basins, over 278
unexploited SHP sites with total potentials of
734.3 MW were identified.
 However, SHP potential sites exist in virtually all
parts of Nigeria with an estimated capacity of
3,500 MW.
 With the exploitation of these, a number of
homes in the rural settings can be sustainably
provided with electricity.
 It may be noted however that big hydro power
plants currently provide about 50 % of the
generated power fed into the grid in Nigeria.
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Electricity from Biomass
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The term “biomass” encompasses diverse fuels derived from timber, agriculture
and food processing wastes or from fuel crops that are specially grown or
reserved for electricity generation.
Biomass fuel can also include sewage sludge and animal manure. Some biomass
fuels are derived from trees. Given the capacity of trees to regenerate, fuels are
considered renewable. Burning crop residue, sewage or manure, - all wastes
that are communally generated by society to generate electricity may offer
environmental benefits.
At present, the biomass power plants burn lumber, agricultural or wood wastes.
Direct combustion power plants burn the biomass fuel directly in boilers that
supply steam for the same kind of steam- electric generators used to burn
fossil fuels.
With biomass gasification, biomass is converted into a gas – methane, that can
then fuel steam generators, combustion turbines, combined cycle technologies
or fuel cell.
Because biomass technologies use combustion processes to produce electricity,
they can generate electricity at any time, unlike wind and most solar
technologies, which only produce when wind is blowing or sun is shining.
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The availability of biomass resources follows the same pattern as
the nation’s vegetation.
The rain forest in the south generates the highest quantity of
woody biomass while the guinea savannah vegetation of the
north central region generates more crop residues than the
sudan and sahel savannah zones.
Industrial effluent such as sugar cane molasses is located with
the processes with which they are associated.
Municipal wastes are generated in the high-density urban areas.
In the agrarian areas however, a lot of agricultural wastes abound.
There is no existing biomass fired power plant in Nigeria and so
no local experience.
However, there is considerable experience in biogas generation
and utilization of fine particle biomass.
Opportunities also exist for briquetting of saw dust and other
fine particle biomass. These however can be adequately applied
for small scale biomass electricity generation at the communal
level using small conversion engines.
Energy Demand and Supply Projections
The Energy Commission of Nigeria recently worked on the energy demand and supply projections in
Nigeria. Their assessment followed the following scenarios:
Three major scenarios were considered
Reference Growth Scenario:
- GDP growth of 7% p.a
- Manufacturing as the main growth
driver and to account for 15% GDP
by 2030 from 6% in the base year.
- Per capita electricity consumption to
rise to 4,000 kWh/annum from less
than 200kWh/annum
Optimistic Growth Scenario:
- GDP growth of 11.5% p.a
- Manufacturing to contribute 25% of
GDP
- Per capita electricity consumption to
rise to about 6,000 kWh/p.a.
High Growth Scenario:
- GDP growth of 10% p.a
- Manufacturing to contribute 22% of
GDP by 2030
- Per capita electricity consumption to
rise to about 5,000 kWh/annum.
With the above, the following demand projections were obtained for the short, medium and long time considerations using the different
growth rates of 7.5, 10 and 11.5 % considered.
Table.1 Electricity peak demand projection for Nigeria
Scenario
Demand (MW)
2010
2015
2020
2025
2030
Reference Growth
(7%)
15,730
28,360
50,820
77,450
119,200
High
(10%)
Growth
15,920
30,210
58,180
107,220
192,000
Optimistic Growth
(11.5%)
16,000
31,240
70,760
137,370
250,000
Table 2. Projected Access to Grid Electricity by Household for Nigeria
(Note that electricity can be from fossil, nuclear or renewable energy
source)
Scenario
2010
2015
2020
2025
2030
Reference growth (7%)
60
75
80
85
90
High growth (10%)
72
86
93
94
95
Optimistic growth (13%)
72
86
93
94
95
Electricity projection by source
Hydro
Gas
Coal
Nuclear
Solar
Wind
Biomass
180,000
160,000
140,000
120,000
MWyr
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
2010
2015
2020
2025
Year
2030
2035
2040
Table 3. Contribution of Renewables into the projected Electricity Demand For the High
Growth Scenario
S/N.
RESOURCE
SHORT
MEDIUM
LONG
1.
Hydro (large)
1,930
5,930
48,000
2.
Hydro (Small)
100
734
19,000
3.
Solar PV
5
120
500
4.
Solar Thermal
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1
5
5.
Biomass
-
100
800
6.
Wind
1
20
40
All Renewables
2,036
6,905
68,345
All Energy Resources
15,920
30,210
192,000
% of Renewables
13%
23%
36%
Renewable Energy Policies
 In
2003, the National Energy Policy (NEP), produced
under the arrowhead of the Energy Commission of
Nigeria, was approved by the Federal Executive Council
(FEC).
 The policy articulates for the use of all viable energy
sources for sustainable national development and with
the active participation of the private sector in line with
government’s economic policy.
 Renewable energy is one of the energy types articulated
in the policy.
 The policy also covers energy efficiency and
conservation, amongst many other issues.
The NEP, and indeed the renewable energy component, has
amongst other things, five broad objectives:
◦ Expanding access to energy services and raising the standard of
living, especially in the rural areas,
◦ Stimulating economic growth, employment and empowerment,
◦ Increasing the scope and quality of rural services, including
schools, health services, water supply, information, entertainment
and stemming the migration to urban areas,
◦ Reducing environmental degradation and health risks, particularly
to vulnerable groups such as women and children,
◦ Improving learning, capacity building and R & D on various RE
technologies in the country,
◦ Providing a road map for achieving the RE share of the national
energy supply mix.
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In 2005, the draft roadmap for the implementation of the
renewable component of the NEP, referred to as the Renewable
Energy Master Plan (REMP), was produced under the arrowhead of
Energy Commission of Nigeria and financially supported by the
UNDP. In 2006, a renewable electricity policy was developed for
Federal Ministry of Power by ICEED
In 2007, a biofuel policy and incentives which articulates for the use
of E10 and B20 as automotive fuel was developed by the NNPC
and approved by FEC. It is now under review
In March, 2013, the REMP was reviewed as REMP 2, for the further
articulation of the renewable aspect of NEP.
In its vision to fast economic growth and development, Nigeria has
envisioned to grow its economy at a rate of 11%-13% so that it can
be reckoned among the 20 largest economies in the world by
2020.
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Energy demand and supply studies conducted by the Energy
Commission of Nigeria, taking into consideration the economic
vision, demography, available energy resources and modern
developmental path, using MAED and MESSAGE energy planning
models of IAEA has indicated that huge amount of energy in the
form of electricity, fuels and heat would be required to meet this
vision.
It may be recalled that for sustainable development, renewable
energy sources are preferable for the supply of the final energies
for development; albeit fossil fuels will continue to play significant
role in driving the economy of Nigeria.
The questions however are: What contribution would renewable
energy make in meeting the huge energy requirement of the nation
in the short, medium and long terms? Secondly, what issues and
incentives need to be put in place in order to facilitate the
attainment of the required contribution by renewable energy?
TheREMP attempts to provide answers to these questions.
OBSTACLES TO RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY
EFFICIENCY DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
 Many
African countries have formulated energy polices,
the policies are too often consultant driven and lack
inputs from the wider civil society and many policies in
the past have passed their implementation life in the
shelves of senior government officials.
 New policies should address all issues such as trade,
production, distribution, consumption, investment in
renewable energy and end-use and demand-side energy
efficiency.
 There is need for a paradigm shift in energy
development.
Policy consideration in Nigeria should involve:
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putting in place market and fiscal policies that promote renewable energy
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promote open energy markets to remove legislative and commercial barriers to
entry and promote transparent competition in supply
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Promote non-electricity producing renewables. Cooking is the main energy need of
the poor and this will not change even when electricity becomes available.
Promotion of improved cook stoves, small scale biogas for cooking, solar thermal
technologies for sterilisation in health centres, etc. should be considered alongside
electricity producing technologies, if not in priority.
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Focus on energy end-uses. Energy policy and programmes in developing countries
focus only on the provision of energy (usually electricity) to a certain number of
households. One has to go beyond this paradigm and look at who uses energy and
for what purpose. Linking energy access to productive and social uses of energy is a
prerequisite to ensure that energy has a true impact on the socio-economic
development of developing countries and really contributes to the achievement of
the MDGs. For decentralised energy systems, a minimum load has to be ensured in
order to guaranty proper use and maintenance of the system. Residential use alone
is usually not enough to ensure this minimum load is achieved.
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Before involving the private sector to provide energy services, strong polices,
legislation and institutions should be put in place to regulate their activities.
Use of energy saving devices/energy efficiency
Conservation of energy is achieved with the use of energy saving devices. Some of these are as
shown here
EE Lamp
Socio-economic impacts of the deployment of
renewable energy electricity
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The processes by which renewable energy sources are deployed have major environmental,
cultural and health impacts.
Apart from large hydro that requires large areas for deployment, most other renewable energy
sources are modular in nature, requiring little space, which can be adequately available with no
deforestation, ecosystem destruction, chemical contamination of land and water, long-term
harm to animal populations (particularly migratory birds and marine mammals), human health
and safety risks for neighboring communities and renewable energy industry workers, and
displacement of indigenous community.
The application of renewable energy devices are localized, hence have limited (if at all)
movement from place to place.
Solar PV panels, wind turbines, mini hydo facilities, biomass sources, etc, are fixed at specific and
fixed locations, hence they do not generate wastes/contaminants or get involved in any
accidents that can affect other areas away from their locations.
Therefore, no problem is posed to aquatic or other environments.
No illness or other vectors of diseases are also passed on to human and animal life.
With this, the economic life of the people where these devices are cited are better secured. No
human rights violations are also experienced.
There are no emissions resulting from the deployment and usage of renewable energy devices.
Consequently, there is little or no negative impact on the environment from the use of
renewable energy sources, this therefore limits considerably any contribution to green house
gases.
Consequently, there are no health risks involved.
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Listed above are the direct impacts of renewable energy devices
deployment on the environment.
There are however a number of indirect social and health
effects.
Renewable energy services, because of their decentralized
nature, size compatibility, and other attributes mentioned above,
have been instrumental for contributing towards social
integration, education, health, drinking water facility, gender
equality, and empowerment, particularly in less accessible and
under privileged remote areas of developing countries.
However, not all the countries have been able to receive higher
level of impact as all of them do not share the same approaches
and contexts in which the program is implemented.
The following tables (Tables 1) provide a comprehensive picture
of the contribution of renewable energy towards social
contribution.
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In Nigeria however, deployment of Renewable
electrification has enhanced the socio-economic
situation of the communities electrified, some villages
that have been using solar based energy have allowed
their communities to feel safe, shop longer and interact
with one another during the night.
Local vendors and shop keepers are able to conduct
business longer and liberate themselves from dangerous
kerosene or candles for minimal lighting that usually
burn their shops.
Homes, schools, and clinics/hospitals have solar systems
deployed that power electronics like refrigerators and
cell phones.
Conclusion
Energy is very essential for economic growth and development in
Nigeria. Nigeria is endowed with sources of renewable energy such
as solar, wind, biomass, hydropower, geothermal and ocean waves in
addition to fossil fuel sources. The energy from these renewable
sources can be transformed to supplement the final energies, from
conventional energy, needed to grow the economy in a sustainable
manner in the short and medium term; and to serve as substitute,
when petroleum becomes uneconomical to exploit. However,
adequate policies, programmes, incentives and legal instruments as
well as adequate funding are imperative to support and grow the
penetration of these new energy sources into the nation’s energy
supply mix. It has been shown in this paper that the provision of
these clean energy sources will to a good extent allow adequate
provision of energy for Institutions and communities that cannot be
connected to the grid.
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