Minister Of Power, Babatunde Fashola Urges Nigerians To Embrace Solar Energy

Minister Of Power, Babatunde Fashola Urges Nigerians To Embrace Solar Energy

Mr Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, has advised Nigerians to embrace solar energy to reduce pressure on the national grid. Fashola gave the advice in Lagos at a book launch. He advised Nigerians to invest in solar energy as solar energy remained energy for the future. “Solar energy is very important to reach Nigerians living in various communities that are difficult to reach by the Disco. We are committed to incremental power and policies that will drive the power sector; Solar is one of the renewable energy,” he said.

The minister, however, allayed fears of Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) over the deployment of more solar power through mini-grids and other Federal Government initiatives aimed at improving service in the power sector. The book titled “Solar Electricity Generation for off-grid communities in Nigeria”, was written by Mr Oladele Amoda, the Managing Director, Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC). He commended Amoda’s initiative in authoring a book that would address power sector challenges, adding that Amoda was outstanding. He said that the book presentation was timely as power sector would start to witness dry session by next month.

The minister said that power generation had increased from 2,600 megawatts to 7, 000 megawatts, while power wheeled out was gradually increasing to 7,000 megawatts. Prof. Bart Nnaji, a former Minister of Power, commended Amoda for his painstaking research and knowledge input in a book that would address power sector challenges and proffered solutions. Nnaji, the Chairman of Geometric Power, said that Amoda had transformed the power sector under his watch as the managing director of Eko disco. He said that renewable energy remained a major focus to power sector growth and development in rural communities in Nigeria.

Photo Credit: Getty

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