The Lagos State Government has disclosed its plans to install no fewer than 1GW of Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy capacity across communities in the state before 2030.
It stated that the planned mix of the installation would be 60 per cent commercial and industrial, while 20 per cent goes to residential, and another 20 per cent would be allocated to government-owned buildings across different communities in the state.
The Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Olalere Odusote, emphasized that Lagos State is committed towards addressing demand – grid supply deficit in the state, currently estimated at 33-43 TWh, and that one of the potential solutions being considered is the use of rooftop solar.
Odusote explained that the objective of the project is to actualize the Lagos state ambition of distributing the proposed solar energy across communities in the state.
He disclosed that the project which is in partnership with the World Bank would require a deployment funding of about 500MW of solar DPV in the next five years which is estimated at US$350 to US$700 million.
He explained that it was envisioned that the project would be financed through a mix of grants, equity, and concessionary debt designed specifically for various consumer segments.
“Additionally, various risk mitigation instruments will also be explored. The financing would be provided by international development finance institutions, equity investors and commercial lenders.The program will adopt two business models – developer owned model for commercial and industrial customers and user owned model for the residential, MSME and public sector customers.
He said a number of aggregation mechanisms would be introduced by demand aggregators to create scale within the industry
in order to address the current challenge of fragmented demand in the solar ecosystem
The commissioner said that technical assistance would also be provided for capacity development for stakeholders across the ecosystem as well as targeted consumer awareness campaigns to enable effective roll-out for end-users.
Odusote emphasized that the ministry would incorporate the feedback from the stakeholders and leverage same in developing a detailed project design document to guide the project implementation.
