A Technology Assessment of Renewable Energy Potentials in Nigeria: University Academia Perspective

1. Introduction

The level at which urbanisation is rising in Africa has manifested in the growth of megacities and many smaller towns (Guneralp et al., 2018). Countless documented research has shown that urbanization is a necessary tool for socio-economic development across the globe. Human wellbeing and environmental protection is expected to improve through urbanization. Urbanization improves the level of socio-economic development support through industrialization, low carbon and innovative system (Cobbinah and Adams, 2018). Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been considered as the world's swiftest urbanizing region and the major cities therein accounted for a combined $0.5 trillion, approximating 50 percent of the region’s gross domestic product (Saghir and Santoro, 2018). Though many countries across the globe have attributed their socioeconomic growth to the benefits of urbanization, but majority of the African countries witnessing rapid urbanization continue to experience a lop-sided amount of the costs associated with it, which includes energy poverty, carbon emission, pollution and urban poverty among others (Cobbinah and Adams, 2018). This could be as a result of weak policy and poor urban planning which depict their unpreparedness for urbanization that occurred in their cities. World Bank (2016) opines that approximately eighty five million Nigerians, which is about half of the population, presently resides in urban centers; and the Nigeria’s urban population is still growing rapidly at an average of 5% from 2000 to 2015.

The urbanization level increased drastically above the average urban population share of 37 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa. The population of cities of more than 300,000 residents skyrocketed from 21 to 42. The Nigerian urban residents is estimated to upsurge to 295 million by 2050 given the fertility rate and decline in mortality rate; the country would be the third largest nation by the end of this century (Bloch et al., 2015; World Bank, 2016). The over reliance on crude oil by Nigeria government where the oil sector generates 97% and 72% of her foreign exchange earnings and federally collected revenue respectively has resulted to a resource curse and Dutch disease whereby the country abandoned the manufacturing sector and service sector (Adelowo et al., 2016; Akinwale, 2012). This has further worsen the challenges of urbanization growth as many youths who moved to the urban centers remain unemployed and lack access to basic urban facilities including epileptic power supply which further cripple the business activities of small and medium enterprises (Ogundari et al, 2017). Energy demand has outstripped supply in many Sub-Saharan Africa nations with Nigeria inclusive. The total electricity demand in Nigeria is far above 10,000 MW, meanwhile the national installed electricity capacity is below 7,000 MW whereas the available capacity is averagely between 2,500 and 3,000 MW out of the installed capacity. The efforts made so far by the governments to improve the electricity generation and distribution from the national grid has not yielded significant results (Makwe et al., 2012; Ibitoye and Adenikinju, 2007). The increased in energy demand by the growing residents of urban centres has resulted into epileptic power supply which led many households and businesses to privately generate electricity through petrol and diesel powered generators. These generators are greatly contributing to carbon emission and many families have been suffocated to death in the urban centres as a result of emission from these fossil fuelled generators, hence not sustainable (Akinwale and Ogundari, 2017). However, renewable energy could be explored as a substitute source of energy to meet the need of the growing urbanization in the African continent in general, and Nigeria in particular.