Why Nigerians should migrate to Solar powered electricity

I hate to be the one to break the bad news to most Nigerians living in 2016 but the truth is that most of them may never see 24 hrs electricity till they die because there has not been any serious development efforts by successive Nigerian governments to encourage the generation of electricity in the country.

During the administration of President Jonathan Goodluck, one of his ministers, Professor Nebo was reported to have said that Nigeria needed about 200,000 mega watts of electricity to satisfy demand but in 2016 during President Buhari's administration, the power sector had dropped significantly to about 1500 MW.

For over 10 years of civilian rule and despite restructuring of the power sector monopolized by NEPA(now PHCN), electricity generation has never really peaked above 10,000 Mega watts and that is a far cry from the over 200,000 mega watts that the nation needs. Does this show that Nigeria's power sector is really working? It seems more likely that many generations will pass away before electricity will ever be sufficient for all Nigerians. For Nigerians of today, it's better to just generate your own electricity rather than keep hoping on the government to do so for you because they lack the funds to do so and have not really shown enough willingness to completely privatize the sector.

According to report by Nation Master, South Africa was said to generation over 250 billion KwH of electricity while Egypt had over 130 billion KwH in 2011. To think that Nigeria is still struggling to reach at least 25 billion KwH is pitiable despite having huge oil reserves and the biggest population in Africa. This is not what a giant of Africa should be doing.

A good majority of small businesses in Nigeria generate more electricity than what the power company can supply them and they spend more for doing so which ultimately increases the prices of products and services in Nigeria. To run a 40 KVA diesel generator for 24 hrs, one might have to use up to 100 litres per day and given a price of N130 per litre, that would cost about N13,000 which makes diesel generators a really expensive way to generate electricity. Electricity supplied from the grid by the Power holding company of Nigeria is more affordable than the cost of running diesel generators as it would cost much less to get the same electricity from the power company.

If any Nigerian seriously wants to have 24 hrs electricity without spending too much on it such as by generating power from their own power generators, an intelligible way to do it would be to invest in a solar power generator.

A Solar power generator uses power from the sun and converts it to electricity without generating as much noise as fuel generators. Besides, they also require little maintenance over the long term and they last really long. Considering the cost of purchasing, installing and maintaining fuel generators just to get 24 hrs electricity or something close to it in Nigeria, it is much cheaper to just go solar. Many studies now show that solar power generated electricity is now cheaper than diesel generators.

Given that grid electricity supply may never be sufficient in Nigeria for many years to come, the best thing Nigerians of this generation can do in order to satisfy their electricity demand is to migrate to solar power because is cheaper and cleaner than diesel generators which many Nigerians are already used to.

If you have N200,000 to invest in a fuel powered generator and you could also get the same electricity from solar panels, wouldn't it be wise to go for solar panels?

A solar powered generator doesn't require you to keep buying fuel on a daily basis as the major things you online need to buy once are solar panels and Deep cycle batteries. A deep cycle battery can last up to 2 years or more before needing a replacement and with the right setup, it's life can be prolonged. A solar panel can last for a much longer period e.g. 10 years.

Where can one buy solar power in Nigeria? Well, I checked out solar power generators on Konga in May 2006 and noticed that with as little as N200,000, a Nigerian can buy a complete solar power generator plant and this would include items such as a 130 watts solar panel, a 10 amps solar charger controller, a 800va/1000 Watts inverter and a 100 amps battery which are the basic things needed to setup a solar system that generates electricity for you.

There are solar power generators that can suit the budget of every Nigerian and you can choose from ones so cheap that can be used to recharge just your portable electronics while you can choose bigger ones than can power your entire home.

Waiting for the government or foreign investors to provide you with sufficient power may never be possible in the next 20 years or more. Get your own power plant.