Nigeria has a wealth of renewable energy potentials. If these potentials are converted into accessible and affordable energy sources, it would help mitigate the major energy challenges in the country, with wide-ranging human benefit and a positive transformational impact on the commercial sector.
The National Energy Policy of Nigeria has established guidelines for the protection of the environment in the case of exploitation of Nigerian’s fossil fuels. It encourages and emphasises the exploration of renewable and alternative energy sources. Energy stakeholders are pushing the government to not just create these policies but to lead by example and use renewable energy in their facilities. This will aid correct data collection on the savings achieved through fossil fuels and tie-in the excess generated energy back to the national grid.
Some government organisations like the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in Lagos and Abuja have installed solar systems and others are keying into it. The Nigerian government is installing all-in-one solar lights on new and existing roads that don’t have lighting. For example: the recently installed Inner Northern Road in Abuja.
Most residential facilities are fast keying into the renewable energy solutions, especially solar systems as an alternative source of power supply, spurred on by the recent and frequent breakdown of the national grid and scarcity of fuel.
The commercial industry, despite being a major energy-consuming sector, still relies on diesel generators and fossil fuel for energy generation. The cost of maintenance and refuelling of generators is very high, with the recent hike in diesel price exacerbating the situation. This has resulted in early closures and low production on goods and services by many commercial businesses.
The commercial sector has not yet fully embraced the solar system approach to renewable energy as a main or alternative source of energy generation. So, why has it been difficult for the commercial industry to key into the renewables idea?
Firstly, the initial cost of installation is steep.
For small businesses and offices, adopting solar systems will be more effective as the requirement for lighting and small power load is roughly 2kW with minimal space requirement for batteries and solar panel installation. The initial cost of this installation may be high but has a better ROI when compared to the maintenance and running cost of the conventional sources of energy.
However, for large-scale commercial applications where the energy requirement for equipment runs into large Kilowatts, the massive amount of energy needed will be difficult to achieve because substantially more space for solar panels and large battery storage is required.
The average mid-scale commercial business requires roughly 100kVA to operate.
In regard to these challenges, there have been recommendations on how commercial buildings can adopt renewable energy and reduce the initial capital cost of such buildings by adopting a flat roof design where panels are mounted or the use of photovoltaic façade systems for buildings thereby optimising space usage.
