Renewable Energy Projects by Foreign Missions in Nigeria
As more industries brace up to embrace renewable energy, we expect a flurry of activities in the renewable energy sector in the short to mid-term. For example, recent news headlines show that Nigeria’s $30 billion telecom industry will expectedly be the latest to adopt clean technologies. The switch, motivated by the high operating cost of the industry, is expected to result in an annual cost saving of $360 million. As this news is likely to excite prospective stakeholders, we expect our three-series case studies to provide practical guidance and insight for newcomers to navigate the industry.
This second piece in the series will focus on renewable energy initiatives sponsored by foreign missions in Nigeria. Our research shows that more than seven countries have contributed directly to Nigeria’s renewable energy sector in the last ten years. These direct contributions were made through investments, capacity building, grants, training, and pledges. Some of the key contributors include the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, Canada, China, India and the United Kingdom. Similarly, in addition to these, over seven countries including the United Kingdom and the United States have all contributed to the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), a special multi-donor fund managed by the African Development Bank. However, as experience shows, several years down the line, not only are the impacts unclear, but in some cases, it is difficult to believe these projects even took place.
We have identified stand-out projects by two foreign missions that showcase key learning points for prospective organisations to navigate the industry and unlock more value for their clients and themselves.
Dutch Government Initiative
RenewableTechNigeria (RTN)
RenewableTechNigeria is a public-private partnership focused on renewable energy. The initiative is funded by the Dutch government and was created to assist companies in vital industries in Nigeria to meet their cold storage needs in the face of the country’s unstable energy price regime and speed up the country’s shift to cleaner energy sources. The proposed solution comprises a containerized solar-powered cold storage solution suitable for deployment in remote and off-grid locations. The project kicked off in October 2022 and is ongoing. Its execution is divided into different phases. The first phase was focused on understanding the Nigerian market and finding a suitable demonstration partner. The second phase aims to provide training through its technical partners and to showcase the impact of the technology.
Typical Target:
- Business sectors that need cold storage such as the agro-food and pharmaceutical industries.
Thematic focus:
- Cold storage
- Technical knowledge transfer between the Netherlands and Nigeria
Key partners:
- Implementing partners (Larive International and Commercium Africa)
- Technology providers (Dawson Group and Independent Energy)
- Technical partners (SOSAI and SolarCentric)
- Training Partners (SEECE and Rubitec)
- Demonstration partner (Primstar)
Status:
- The second phase of the project is billed to commence in February 2025
Impacts (expected outcomes):
The project is expected to strengthen the value chain of critical industries. When fully implemented, the impacts are to be measured on a case-by-case basis for the onboarded companies. Key metrics to be measured include:
- Energy costs saved
- Carbon reduction
- Productivity improvement (through reduction of downtimes)
- Training of local participants.
German Government Initiative
Scaling up University Electrification in Nigeria (SUEN)
Scaling up university electrification in Nigeria was sponsored by the Nigerian-German Energy Partnership under the aegis of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The programme ran from December 2017 until August 2020. It was aimed at increasing the pool of qualified technical experts in Nigeria’s renewable energy sector by providing a practical dimension to the solar curriculum development in Nigeria. The pilot phase of the project was launched at the University of Ibadan and several stakeholders in the university ecosystem were trained with transferable skills by domain knowledge expert Eric Lespin. The project culminated in the construction of a solar carport by local partners. The carport powers the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the university.
Typical Target:
- The initiative was targeted at students, lecturers and technicians in the university ecosystem.
Thematic focus:
- Education
- Boosting local content development
Key partners:
- GIZ
- Stakeholders at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ibadan
- Eric Lespin, an experienced solar expert
- Ashdam Solar Co. Ltd
Status:
- The pilot phase of this project has been successfully executed.
Impacts:
This project facilitated the training of internal stakeholders from the University of Ibadan and external stakeholders including participants from seven universities in Nigeria. It also gave birth to a solar carport as well as the establishment of a solar laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. By accomplishing these feats using local resources and local partners Ashdam Solar, this project contributed to local content development in the industry.
Recommendations/Lessons:
The projects RTN and SUEN provide excellent learning opportunities for prospective stakeholders looking to enter the solar industry. These initiatives have strong training contexts and understand the need to demonstrate the efficacy of their solutions through scalable pilots. Unlike the donor-funded projects reviewed in the first case study, these projects have clear outcome-based metrics to measure success. Distinct differences exist – the latter was focused on the university ecosystem with less paying power while the other focuses on industries with critical value chains. However, one notable lesson, as can be seen with SUEN, is that there are valid concerns about maintaining the momentum of the initiative after the pilot phase.
Therefore, we strongly advise that having an implementing partner to help sustain the momentum of multi-stakeholder initiatives, as can be seen in the first case study and the clear coordination of RenewableTechNigeria. Additionally, to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of initiatives without obvious paying power such as universities, we recommend anchoring on a monetization model that ensures the end-user pays a fraction of the generation cost. Perhaps handing over the ownership of the carport to the University’s cooperative society could help to scale it. Finally, for initiatives with clear commercial viability such as RTN, stakeholders must be wary of industry inertia. To accelerate adoption, we recommend more flexible financing schemes.
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