As Nigeria targets to generate nine gigawatts of electricity from renewable sources, TotalEnergies Nigeria Limited has urged the Nigerian Content Development and Management Board (NCDMB) to develop funding interventions to fast track the process.
The international energy company has thrown it weight behind renewables as an important resource to meet Nigeria’s future energy demands.
Nigeria is targeting to generate 30 gigawatts (GW) of electricity by 2030 and 30 per cent of this is expected to come from renewable energy sources.
While the NCDMB has come up with initiatives to promote local content in the energy sector, all of it has currently focused on oil and gas.
Some of NCDMB’s initiatives include the $300million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund with the Bank of Industry (BoI), the $100million Matched Fund with NEXIM Bank, the $50million R&D Intervention Fund and the $50million NOGAPS Manufacturing Fund.
Speaking during a panel session at the Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) Conference 2023, country adviser (Multi-Energies), Total Energies, Adewale Fayemi said renewable energy if harnessed will become a major contributor in the energy industry.
The panel discussion titled “Exploring Emerging Opportunities for Local Content in Meeting Future Energy Demand”, sought to examine roadmaps towards a sustainable energy future.
Adewale said the energy demand in Nigeria is growing due to an increase in industrial activities.
He said that Gas will remain Nigeria’s transition fuel, but that renewable energy can also compliment the numbers, so as to meet up with the demands, not just for Nigeria, but around the world.
He said, “Nigeria has an ambition to increase our energy capacity to 30 GW in 2030 of which 30 per cent will come from renewables.
“When you look at our energy generation, we have 16.4GW of energy capacity, 12GW is from gas, while renewables is just about 2.2GW which is mainly hydro.
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“As the energy industry continues to grow massively, Oil and Gas will play a major role but there is no stopping the trend that we need more energy, so renewables will come to compliment that.
“Oil and Gas activities are driven by technology and most of these technologies can be applied though the renewable energy sector.
“Our installations are online remote monitoring and control so if you have big solar farms or hydro power stations that’s the exact way you are going to monitor and control it.
“The companies operating in this space need to access their capacities, identify the synergies that it can work on and start evolving in a business model to take advantage of these opportunities.
“This is already happening in other parts of the world, where the major service companies, all have product lines that dedicate to renewables energy.
“The operation and maintenance of equipments are also important, you cannot have a Solar plant running without maintaining it, so whatever skills you have to ensure high availability of Oil and Gas installations, you can also use the same for the renewable energy projects.
Adewale appreciated the NCDMB for their giant strides in developing the Oil and Gas sector and urged them to extend their efforts to other energy sectors including renewables.
