Renewable Energy Optimisation For Electricity Generation In Nigeria: Lessons From Leading Countries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63746/njtd.v23i1.3606Keywords:
Climate change, Energy poverty, Energy security, Net zero, Renewable energyAbstract
Nigeria is faced with a persistent electricity crisis that has crippled most sectors of the economy. This paper reviewed the strategies deployed by five leading countries in renewables, the status of renewable energy in Nigeria and ways to optimise it to generate a large amount of electricity in Nigeria and other developing countries. Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to analyse the collected data to achieve the study objectives. Wind power, solar power and hydropower were ranked the highest sources of renewable energy in China, the USA, India, Germany and Brazil. The major findings are (i) the various strategies deployed to develop the renewable energy industry in leading countries will also be effective in Nigeria; (ii) solar energy is considered to have the highest potential for Nigeria, and hydropower is the next potential. This study recommends that the Nigeria government should (i) target electricity generation capacity of 200 GW by the year 2035 and target fifty percent of the capacity i.e. 100 GW from renewable energy; (ii) adopt combined strategies used by leading countries which includes diversification of renewable sources, investment in research and development, international cooperation, financial incentive, subsidies and ambitious targets to optimise the development of renewable energy; (iii) focus on solar and small hydropower to kick start increase in electricity generation capacity from renewable sources; (iv) focus on building both large-scale plants and many small-scale plants.
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