Ogbemudia, who made this known during the official inauguration of the Nigeria Renewable Energy for All Project in Benin, explained that the figure represented Federal Government’s budget of N796.7bn for the capital expenditure for the 2009 fiscal year for 36 states of the federation.
The programme director lamented that in spite of the various government policies to revive the energy sector, many Nigerians still get as low as four hours of electricity supply per day, hence the need for Nigerians to embrace solar as a viable source of power.
He said CREDC had been playing a key role in the deployment of renewable energy to rural communities since 2006, part of which was the installation of stand-alone solar systems for no fewer than 550 households in Edo.
He explained that the solar project, also known as Nigeria-REAP, was aimed at improving access to sustainable and interrupted electricity supply using renewable energy in collaboration with Schneider Electric.
According to him, Nigeria-REAP was also targeted at individual homes and corporate bodies who require regular and improved electricity power, compared to what they current rate of supple.
He therefore urged Nigerian electricity consumers to take advantage of solar power as the most economically viable alternative to generate their own electricity.
Among other advantages, he stated that solar power, as a renewable energy, saved the consumer the burden of paying electricity and maintenance bills, a benefit he noted was inescapable when using the conventional mean of power supply.
He said, “A 2009 study on electricity distribution among the six geo-political zones in Nigeria shows that some Nigerian enjoy only four to six hours of power supply.
“Also Nigerians spend about N796.4bn on fuelling their electric generators to provide themselves with electric power.
“But with renewable energy, there no electricity bills, the system can be upgraded to meet your increasing energy demand, no pollution and no maintenance cost.
“Anybody who wants to remain in business needs sustainable power supply.”
Also speaking, the acting Director of the National Centre for Energy and Environment, University of Benin, Professor Martins Ogbonmwan, said the centre, through the Energy Commission of Nigeria, had developed and tested a wide range of renewable energy technologies for use in the South-South geo-political zone and the entire country.
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