Cost of solar enegy declines by 80 % in 5 years – Environmentalist

Mr Chibueze Ebii, an environmentalist on Wednesday said the cost of solar energy declined by 80 per cent over a period of five years.
Ebii told reporters in Abuja that the cost of producing renewable energy such as wind and hydro had also reduced.
He, however, advised the Federal Government to embrace the use of renewable energy to meet its energy needs.
The environmentalist recalled that the Federal Government in August 2014 declared that 30 per cent of electricity would be generated from coal.
“Nigeria needs energy to develop, but there are other sources of energy apart from coal.
“The coal power plant is known to emit a lot of harmful gases into the atmosphere which can have devastating heath implication like cancer and respiratory diseases.
“Also, the air from coal plant pollutes the environment and can have some devastating effect on the environment as well,’’ the expert said.
According to him, using coal is more expensive than renewable energy because of its health and environmental implications.
Ebii said that using gas as a source of energy was far better than coal.
“Nigeria can utilise its gas for now why it works toward a proper transition to renewable energy, constituting a major percentage in the energy mix of energy.
“We can learn a lot from Kenya, the country has supported renewable companies to thrive.
“What they do is to use pay as you go solution, where small businesses and residential homes can get their own solar panels.
“People can pay little amounts over a period of maybe two years until the system becomes theirs,’’ he said.
The environmentalist said that the Federal Government needed to support renewable initiative for the price to further reduce.
Ebii said that the renewable energy sector had the potential of generating a lot of jobs in the country.
“Germany has created over 40,000 jobs from renewable energy alone and Nigeria has the potential to create more jobs from it,’’ he said.