Any alternatives to gas generated power?

As we struggle towards the vision of 6000 megawatts of power for 140 million people by the end of 2009, (South Africa produces more than 43,000 megawatts of electricity for a third of our population), a few weeks ago we lost over 700 megawatts of power due to disruption in gas supplies.

The importance of gas to the implementation of our power strategy is not in debate and neither is the recent news about the progress being made with our Gas Master Plan even though it focused only briefly on plans to make Nigeria the world’s second largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer after Qatar by 2011. Most of the article in question, published in Business Day online on March 24 2009, focused on the benefits to our power plans and all the power stations expected to spring up along the route of the gas transmission lines.

However, what should be in debate is how long we intend to ignore the possibility of using other sources of energy. Our gas problems are not going to be solved in the near future, especially with the oil producers’ reluctance to stop flaring and the extremely lucrative export market for gas. If our gas problems are not solved, then most likely our power problems will not be solved either. So what should we be doing?
We should be seriously considering alternative energy sources to address climate change and working on updating the 2003 National Energy Policy (NEP).We should also be figuring out how to make money from renewable energy or energy conservation either through carbon credits or other devices. This is what is happening everywhere else in the world and just like we thought we were immune to the global economic recession, we probably think we are immune to climate change and declining world oil reserves.

As usual policy and regulation are in abundance; apart from the 2003 NEP we also have a Renewable Energy Master Plan (2005), a Renewable Energy Action Plan (2006) and the Renewable Energy Policy (2006). We have several energy and environmental agencies that should be concerned with driving policy and plans on renewable energy, one because it is a cleaner source of energy and will do less harm to our environment and two because we should not be entirely dependent on fossil fuel for energy. However we have little to show for it.

Germany, a country not known for its sunshine, is in the forefront of solar energy generation, mainly through the use of legislation. A few years ago the German government passed the Renewable Energy Act to boost the switch to renewable energy sources. The renewable energy sector was aided especially by the provison that required businesses to buy energy generated from renewable sources first before buying energy from non-renewable sources. People who produce energy in their own homes have a guarantee by the government that they can sell their 'product' at fixed prices for a period of 20 years. As if that was not enough, last year, the German town of Marburg made history by becoming the first city in Germany to require solar power for newly built or renovated buildings. The aim is to encourage the use of solar thermal systems to displace the use of non-renewable energy sources for heating.

According to research, Nigeria has an annual average daily sunshine of 6.25 hours, and a feasibility study carried out in 2004 found out that on solar energy is the most efficient and economical way to electrify villages in this region. Indeed, solar photovoltaic technologies are allegedly currently being used for small-scale power supply in some rural electrification programs of some States of the federation. So my question is: must our power generation plans be solely hinged on hydrocarbons? Can the Ministry of Power say ‘I am going to diversify our power generation so that we are not 100% dependent on gas’, or does this have to be part of the nation’s energy policy?

To start, the NEP definitely acknowledges that we should work on generating more electricity through renewable sources of energy ‘in order to conserve our fossil fuels’. However it does not say what agency or organisation should be responsible for driving this development of alternative energy sources. Unfortunately, the eighty nine paged policy document does not set out clearly what agency or agencies are responsible for driving or implementing the policy. The mandate of the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), established in 1988, is for the strategic planning and co-ordination of national policies in the field of Energy and does not include generating and distributing energy, so we find a convenient vacuum which allows everyone to abdicate responsibility.

A major problem, the curse of oil, is that it is just easier to rely on oil and gas for energy and we prefer not to plan for the future or think of alternatives to the way we live. Britain is talking about profound changes to the way they build - with ‘new homes built of mud or straw’ as one vision of the future to futher the Government's declared quest for zero carbon homes by 2016. Even America, notorious for energy inefficiencies and constantly derided for their fuel guzzling cars, recently passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) with Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Provisions to provide tax incentives and over $16B to support renewable energy programs.

If the mandate of our Ministry of Power is to simply ‘generate electricity’ as opposed to ‘generate electricity through the use of hydrocarbons’, then we need a power plan that takes into consideration alternatives which do not require gas. There are also simple energy policy changes to be introduced such as banning 60 to 100watt bulbs in favour of 20 to 40 watt bulbs to save energy and providing incentives to new buildings which are built to conserve energy. It is not ‘backwardness’ that resulted in the mud huts and beautiful works of mud based architecture all around West Africa – these structures are built for our hot climate to ensure insulation against the heat. Now, on the altar of sophistication and progress we build with expensive cement and concrete and all our houses, offices, hotels, schools have to be powered with air conditioners and fans. Ironically, in a country where energy is so sorely lacking, we are inefficient and wasteful with the little we have and no one but the cement and generator companies are benefitting from this.