FG Launches Solar Power for Gwagwalada Community

The federal government yesterday launched solar power (Solar Home System) in Wuna, a community in Gwagwalada Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory.

Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said while launching the Solar Home System, that solar power would be deployed efficiently to increase power supply especially to the local communities.

Narrating what led to the deployment of solar power in the Wuna Community, Osibanjo said: “The President in 2015 spoke to me about what we could do to very quickly accelerate electrification especially in the rural areas and we agreed on all kinds of projects that we could do to bring electricity to many of our communities. We began to talk about it and renewable energy especially solar power seems to be the one way that would be cost effective that we could deploy all over the country.

“I think that once we took that decision we were very fortunate also to have met with the UK Minister for Africa at the time. They were launching a scheme called ‘Energy Africa’ and it was through Energy Africa that we came across Azuri technologies because they have been doing some works in East Africa. So we came together and we began to look for ways to do this in Nigeria. This is the result of that meeting and agreement.”

The Federal Government’s ambitious renewable energy policy aims to increase production from renewable energy source from 13 per cent of total electricity generation in 2015, to 23 per cent in 2025 and 36 per cent in 2030. According to government, it includes the goal to increase the percentage contribution of solar energy in the to total energy mix.

In his address at the launching, Mr. Chinedu Ugbo, managing director of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), stated that 20, 000 units of solar home system would be deployed to the underserved rural communities with no access to grid electricity supply.