The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), in a new report, has revealed that investment in renewable energy can provide nearly 60 percent of Nigeria’s energy demand by 2050.
The report shows that investing in renewable energy pays off, generates economic growth and jobs, while achieving global climate and sustainable development goals.
He added that renewable energy sources will enable up to 40 percent savings in natural gas and 65 percent in oil needs at the same time.
“With a growing population and a variety of socio-economic challenges, Nigeria requires sustainable energy sources to meet the growing needs of all sectors of its economy and to achieve universal access to modern energy services,” the report, titled ‘Fact Sheet of renewable energy route Nigeria explained.
“By utilizing its abundant untapped renewable energy, Nigeria can provide sustainable energy to all of its citizens in a cost-effective manner,” said IRENA Director General Francesco La Camera. “Nigeria has a unique opportunity to develop a sustainable energy system based on renewable energy that supports socio-economic recovery and development, while addressing climate challenges and achieving energy security.”
In the IRENA report, Nigerian Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Adeleke Mamora said that the highly distributed institutional structure of the energy sector in Nigeria means that policy coordination will be essential to unlock integrated energy transition planning and guarantee your success.
He said that a cross-cutting agency or body tasked with doing so would be helpful in building consensus and developing a coherent plan that would in turn enable the scaling up of renewable energy to meet needs across the Nigerian energy sector.
According to the IRENA report, the proportion of primary energy requirements satisfied by renewable energy can reach 47 percent by 2030 and 57 percent by 2050.
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Electrification will play a major role in achieving higher shares of renewable energy with electricity in end-use energy nearly doubling by 2050.
According to the international agency, investment in renewable energy will be more profitable than the conventional way.
He said the study presents how a scenario of increased consumption of renewables, called the Transformative Power Scenario (TES), envisions a future expansion of the capacity of Nigeria’s electricity supply system largely provided by renewables, thereby reducing primary energy requirements (because most deployed renewables are more efficiently converted to useful energy than fossil fuels) and greenhouse gas emissions along with increased electrification compared to the Planned Energy Scenario (PES), representing what would occur under current and planned policies.
The TES has lower investment costs than the PES: $1.22 trillion compared to $1.24 trillion (2010 estimates), while providing the same energy service. In terms of average annual investment values, this corresponds to $35 billion per year compared to $36 billion per year.
Moving forward with the energy transition requires shifting and scaling up investments in the short term to avoid investments in locked-in fossil fuel infrastructure with long lifespans, such as natural gas pipelines. In 2050, significantly lower use of natural gas and oil compared to planned policies has profound implications for fossil fuel infrastructure investment, increasing the risk of stranded assets.
Among the report’s recommendations are that policies for the accelerated deployment of renewable energy are needed to unlock the benefits of the report. Policy coordination is also essential to unlock successful integrated energy transition planning in Nigeria.
“This assessment is timely given the Nigerian Government’s commitment to reduce its greenhouse gases by 20% unconditionally and 47% conditionally by 2030, as well as to achieve net zero emissions by 2060, as expressed at COP26. in Glasgow in 2021.” Mamora said.
