Renewable Energy Sources for the Present and Future: An Alternative Power Supply for Nigeria

It is estimated that at least 600 million people in Africa lack access to electricity and three out of five people don’t have access to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Though Africa is rich in a wide range of energy resources including solar, bio, natural gas, oil, coal and Uranium, the continent is far from energy self-sufficiency. Addressing climate change will require deep and quick reductions in fossil fuel use so that the systems developed around producing, transporting, and consuming energy are decarbonized by the middle of the century. In the ongoing age, sustainable power source has taken another swing to limelight on the planet, particularly in developed and emerging nations, as it assumes a noteworthy part both in economy and the general job of the world. Significantly, Nigeria an oil-rich country, comes as no surprise that almost all of her energy consumption comes from non-renewable energy sources as coal, natural gas and oil, and as such it is highly vulnerable to shocks due to overdependence on the fossil sources; often time is controlled by the international market. On the whole, the fossil fuel is expected to span only but a millennium (1700-2700) of human civilization while the imperative of an energy shortage situation is felt in every sector of the country considering the poor electricity consumptions in the country, which has reflected on the country’s economy and productivity rate. In revamping the economic sectors in Nigeria, the need for an alternative energy sources that is augmentable in supply keeping in view sustainable development as the hallmark for all sector development. Thus far, Nigeria ought to likewise be opened to universal investments as this would help support the improvement of its assets. This paper, therefore, supports no other sources but renewable energy in promoting the countries productivity at all segments. It further stressed on the implementation of the country’s Renewable Energy Master Plan (REMP) to meet global competitors by the year 2030. Similarly, senior political figures, policymakers and CEOs should engage in a policy dialogue by identifying unique opportunities and best practices for developing and investing in Nigeria and in Africa’s energy markets for “…without this energy supply, the sophisticated skills of the industrial world are merely a burden in the struggle for survival.”