BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — In sunny Nigeria, 14 new solar farms were supposed to galvanize a meager solar industry and generate massive amounts of power, about a fifth of what the country’s entire electrical grid supplies on a good day.
“We were very excited because we were pioneers,” said Animation Star, managing director of Nova Solar Power, who was working on one of the projects in 2016.
But this ambition collapsed when the Nigerian government refused to provide crucial guarantees to developers. It’s not that demand for clean energy is low – the smallest solar systems for homes have been very popular and created jobs – but big developers have been unable to overcome Nigeria’s reputation as a risky place to do business.
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It’s a problem across sub-Saharan Africa, where 83% of the world’s population lacks electricity. Despite the huge potential of solar energy, little of it has been installed.
“Many of your countries are facing very high borrowing costs, runaway debt, and insufficient climate financing and investment,” António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, said at a panel on Africa’s green transition at global climate negotiations held this year in Baku. Azerbaijan.
The result, he said, is: “Your clean energy revolution is set back.”
Nigeria may Be the center of the problem. More Nigerians live without electricity than citizens of any other country. Their numbers are even greater than they were a decade ago: Africa’s most populous country, with a population of more than 220 million, has grown faster than its energy sector has expanded. Even those who are connected to the network live with frequent outages. Millions are forced to rely on firewood for cooking and harmful and noisy diesel generators for intermittent electricity.
And at the climate talks in Baku, at least $300 billion annually Pledges were made to assist developing countries Such as Nigeria’s transition away from fossil fuels and adapting to a warmer world with more extreme weather. It was criticize By many developing countries to a very small extent.
Access to adequate funds will be vital for Nigeria, which faces a massive energy transition. It is a petrostate, a major oil exporter whose government runs largely on oil revenues. It burns natural gas for most of its electricity needs. At the same time, it is trying to expand its economy to lift tens of millions of people out of poverty and move to net zero by 2060. To do this, there will be a flood of new renewable energy projects such as solar and hydropower.
In the years before the 14 solar projects were announced, Nigeria opened up its electricity sector to attract more private investment and made it easier for new producers to sell power, said Animashun of Nova Solar Power. There was strong support from investors as well. He was optimistic.
He said: “There was a proliferation of projects, and this proliferation led to competition among us.” Everyone wanted to be the first to finish.
But Nigeria has high interest rates and is considered a financially problematic place to do business and the deal was never closed. As the solar industry matured and prices fell, the government tried to get out of an agreement to pay what it saw as too high a price for solar power. Developers were unable to get the guarantees they wanted from officials and international development banks. Animashon said he knew the deal was in serious jeopardy when the government proposed a deal in local currency instead of dollars.
“The currency has lost 90% of its value since I started this project,” he said. “So Nigeria is not actually bankable.”
A woefully inadequate grid leads to demand for no electricity at all
Although the Nigerian grid provides only a fraction of the electricity people need, some are turning to solar solutions that save at least some of the energy. Small solar systems that just power lights and perhaps charge a cell phone have tripled from 2016 to 2023, according to GOGLA, the off-grid energy industry association. Sales of small surface systems that can power some devices increased further, although sales fell somewhat when the subsidy program ended this year.
Sun King is a leading seller of these small devices that can replace dirty and expensive kerosene lamps or diesel generators.
The small solar industry also requires a large workforce at a time when young people in Nigeria need jobs. Olamide Ayo-Ogunlade is the HR Leader for West and Central Africa at Sun King. When the company started four years ago, the company had 19 stores in the country, and now it has 90 stores. More than 8,000 sales representatives, or “energy officers,” work in Nigeria to sell products, install them in homes, service them, and collect customer debts.
“Most of the time we find that energy executives start out as customers,” she said. “They buy the product themselves, see how great it is, and then are exposed to the opportunity to be an energy entrepreneur.”
They will knock on doors and appear at markets, churches and mosques in new areas to make sales. Energy executives are trained, in person and online, on the company and its products and work with mentors.
This attention to training is important. Across the region, some are questioning the reliability of solar power, according to Cyri Diallo, an energy and climate finance expert at the United Nations Development Programme.
“Many of the installations that were done, consumers were not satisfied with them either because they were poorly installed, or the equipment itself was of low quality,” he said.
He said the situation has improved in recent years, but training programs need to grow.
There is definitely a demand for jobs, said Akin Olokeran, CEO of ABG-CAPS Clean Energy Generation, which installs solar systems for businesses.
“I receive on average about 10, maybe 20 applications a day, without even asking for them,” he said, adding that many of the applicants have tremendous potential and he tries to help them find opportunities, but “the jobs are not there.”
The planned transformation of the Nigerian capital’s largest market demonstrates one solution that produces reliable electricity, improvements in air quality, as well as job opportunities, says Alberto Rodriguez Gomez, director of the African energy program at the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute. Solar panels coupled with batteries will keep the market running on its own microgrid even during common power outages.
Even now, vendors working in cramped stalls have no alternative but to run diesel generators during frequent power outages.
“I struggle because it’s thick, the air is bad, and it’s very noisy, so it’s really hard to keep a conversation going,” Gomez said of the market when the generators are running. A future with solar on the market “is like going from hell to heaven.”
The World Bank last year approved a new $750 million program to improve electricity access for 17.5 million Nigerians by supporting projects such as mini-grids or small home solar systems. More is needed.
Animashun believes Nigeria is approaching a “come to Jesus moment” when it comes to energy – there is pressure on government to deliver at a time when the cost of living is rising.
“If you want to avoid social unrest, you have to do something,” he said.
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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. AP is solely responsible for all content. This story was produced as part of the COP29 Transboundary Energy Transition Reporting Fellowship, a program organized by Clean Energy Wire and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.
