Nigeria’s Solar Projects Yield Both Failure and Success
Solar power offers hope to villages that lack electricity, but Nigeria's experience shows that it won't work without adequate investment and care
Five years after its installation, a state-sponsored solar project at the Nigerian village of Bishop Kodji is not functioning. Below, children labor in the surrounding waters. It was hoped the photovoltaic system would power water pumps and fish driers in the tiny fishing and boat-carving community.
PHOTOGRAPH BY YINKA OBEBE
In the shadow of Nigeria's business capital, Lagos, where some of the richest Nigerians live, lay the Onisowo lands. On an island in Lagos Lagoon, (map) Onisowo is 15 minutes west by water from the prestigious Ikoyi Boat Club, where the wealthy dock their yachts, and 10 minutes east of the private beaches Ibeshe and Ilashe, where they weekend.
Despite its prime location, the island is far removed from robust development elsewhere in the country.
Five years ago, the Lagos state government launched a solar electrification project at the Onisowo village of Bishop Kodji-the first of its kind in the state. The project was built to power water pumps, fish driers, and street lamps, giving the tiny fishing and boat-carving community's 5,000 residents easier access to drinking water, securing their sandy streets, and strengthening the oceanic island's fishing economy.
Things didn't go as planned.
"We don't know what's going on," said Azime Anthony, a traditional leader in Bishop Kodji. "It only worked for about three months, then it stopped. All the places where we are supposed to have light are dark and they never came back to try to fix any of it."
(Related: "Can Solar Save Us?")
The solar system breakdown in Bishop Kodji is just one example of the failures that have typified energy delivery in Nigeria. Nearly 70 percent of people in the West African country do not have access to the national power grid, and the 30 percent who do have access cannot rely on steady power. While the federal government develops and extends the national grid, state governments have increasingly sought alternative energy sources-such as the Bishop Kodji solar project-to meet the shortfall.
What is the way forward.
We propose the following:
1. There must be community help technical entrepreneurs that can come to such communities for a reasonable fee.
2. There must be government private solarpreneur partnership to maintain such services.
No comments:
Post a Comment