The Nigeria Wind Energy Council (NWEC),has advocated the need for investment in wind energy in Nigeria which has the capacity to add up additional 7gigawatts to the nation’s grip by 2050.
Coordinator of the Council, Temitope Omowumi,spoke during a presentation at a two-day workshop organised by Nextier and the Africa Climate Foundation.
Titled: -Pre-Empting Resilience for Accelerated Renewable Energy Scaling, Omowumi said NWEC is poised to increase the penetration of wind energy as a renewable energy system.
According to him, the forum aims to sustain and address issues of common interests geared towards advancing wind energy development in Nigeria.
He noted that Nigeria should be talking about wind because ten percent of the windiest areas in Nigeria have wind speeds averaging around 6.79 meters per second, especially when you go above 75 meters in height; if that is taken into consideration, Nigeria’s annual wind energy production is significant, and it should tap into its potential.
“In Nigeria, findings show that there is wind potential with a projected generation capacity of 7GW by 2050. Wind energy is also a competitively-priced renewable resource. It also complements solar and other technologies, minimises disruption of land use, and offers opportunities for community benefit sharing,” he stated.
He added that the potential Nigeria has in wind is the Katsina wind farm with 10.175 MW located at the Lamba Rimi in Rimi local government of Katsina state. It holds the distinction of being Nigeria’s only operational wind energy initiative.
He stated that Kenya has an installed capacity of wind of 435MW, the West African region has 296MW, and Nigeria has 10MW, and there is significant untapped potential in Nigeria of 1000GW and West Africa of 9144GW.
“There are only two countries that are exploring wind energy; even with the coastal line we have in West Africa, there are no offshore applications, yet we hope to get there.
They are Parc Eolien Taiba N’diaye in Senegal with a capacity of 158.7MW, with an annual energy production of 450 GWh and can abate annum 300,000 tonnes of CO2 and katsina wind farm with 10.175 MW with an annual energy production of 0.987GWh and abate annum tonnes of 493.45 CO2. If operational, the Katsina wind farm will be abating 500 tons of CO2; aside from energy access, it contributes to net – zero in Nigeria,” he said.