Welders and panel beaters running on solar? Oh do post links if you have any, I am very interested in that.

If you have information on such organisations set out to help businesses run on these options you mentioned, please post them too.

To Anyone who is interested in reading more of what is actually been happening in Africa,


http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol20no3/203-solar-power.html

http://www.self.org/uganda.asp

http://www.greenstar.org/

http://www.self.org/myeka.asp

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/nov/27/renewableenergy.environment

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~ciotola/solar/energy.html

http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2004/november/energy.htm

http://www.bigfrogmountain.com/africa.cfm

‘The sun is free’


The target is quite feasible, says Mr. Garai Makokoro, director of the Energy Technology Institute in Zimbabwe. Africa, after all, possesses some of the world’s largest watercourses (hydro-potential), as well as some of the world’s largest oil, coal and gas reserves. The way to move the NEPAD vision ahead, he adds, is for countries to find cheaper power sources while minimizing environmental hazards and ensuring sustainability. The energy expert believes that solar power, clean and renewable, fits the bill.

“African countries must think outside the box. The sun is free and inexhaustible. Solar technology — photovoltaic panels — converts the sun’s radiation directly into electricity with no pollution or damage to the environment. The panels can generate enough power to run stoves, pump water, light clinics and power televisions. Africa has one of the best climates for this type of energy,” Mr. Makokoro told Africa Renewal.

But even with the compelling advantages solar power offers, the Human Development Report, published by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), shows that the majority of Africans still rely on less efficient traditional energy sources. Wood, or other biomass such as crop waste, is the dominant fuel for cooking. This comes at a huge cost to the environment as families continue to cut down trees for much-needed fuel.

In the early 1990s, numerous villages turned to solar power in parts of Africa where one might least expect to stumble upon an oasis of lights shimmering in the pitch-black night. Perhaps the most ambitious project of this nature, and one that is often cited, is a Zimbabwean project supported by UNDP through the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The initiative, jointly funded by GEF ($7 mn) and Zimbabwe ($400,000), installed some 9,000 solar power systems throughout the country in a bid to improve living standards, but also to curtail land degradation and pollution.

The River Estate near Shamva, 70 kilometres from Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, boasts one of the best solar-village models in the country. Fifty-two commercial farming families share systems; there is one system for every two houses. Each family has two lamps and a connection for a radio or small television set. The new lighting systems have improved the quality of life for the community. They have extended study hours for schoolchildren, reduced rural-to-urban migration in the area and upgraded health standards by electrifying a local health center.




Innovative financing


“With all their advantages, solar systems are not cheap to install,” says Mr. Jem Porcaro, an analyst for the Energy and Environment Group at UNDP. “A typical home system in sub-Saharan Africa costs anywhere between $500 and $1,000 and such systems typically provide enough power to light three to six rooms and power a black-and-white TV each night. But the cost is well beyond the means of most African households.”

The use of innovative financing schemes, like fee-for-service arrangements, is one way to overcome these high up-front costs, notes Mr. Porcaro. Installing solar panels to power multiple houses at once can also cut down on costs. More households could afford solar power, argues the World Bank, if governments were to remove barriers, such as high import duties, that increase the cost of the panels. Regional cooperation to facilitate trade is another major NEPAD goal.

African leaders are demonstrating commitment to bring solar power to rural homes. For example, a UNDP-GEF report on solar financing and delivery models notes that private sales, through dealers, initially dominated the market in South Africa, but that the government, a leading NEPAD proponent, later initiated a massive off-grid effort that is now fully active. Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and most countries in the region have developed solar markets, in many cases with special funds to support consumer credit.

Boost to businesses
Besides domestic use, people are harnessing solar power to run small businesses. Entrepreneur Abina Lungu operates a maize-grinding mill in Nyimba, eastern Zambia. With reliable solar energy, he can work well into the night to meet all his customers’ orders. His house, close to the mill, is also lit by solar power. Mr. Lungu is one of the many villagers serviced by the Nyimba Energy Service Company (NESCO), an enterprise funded by the Swedish International Development Agency. To get power into a home or shop, NESCO installs a system that includes a panel, battery, charge controller and power points. The cost is $33.33, including the contract fee. Thereafter, consumers pay a monthly rental fee.

“I pay 30,000 kwacha [about $6.25] as a rental charge every month to NESCO,” Mr. Lungu told the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a humanitarian news agency. “For me, it works out cheaper to use solar because paraffin is more expensive, and even if electricity comes to Nyimba, not all the people will get connected.”

No major marketing is needed to convince African citizens to turn to solar. The demand is high. NESCO says it has about 360 people on its waiting list. “We are struggling to satisfy demand,” confesses Mr. Stanislas Sankhani, the company’s project manager.

With a concerted NEPAD effort Africans will, hopefully, not languish in line for much longer. Solar electricity, states the World Bank, is as good as an electricity grid for rural households since they do not consume much power. In a modest Nyimba office, 320 kilometres away from the Zambian capital’s grid, a sign confidently announces that the office is up to date: “Solar is good ,  even in thatched houses; it will reach you wherever you are.”

Feel free to visit this thread https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-107052.0.html to get an idea of how much Individual Nigerians and businesses currently spend annually on generator use and you tell me how that amount is so much cheaper than investing the same amount in solar power for those same individuals and businesses.





http://www.bigfrogmountain.com/africa.cfm

This happens to be my favourite ,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/dec/02/renewableenergy.solarpower

How Africa's desert sun can bring Europe power
A £5bn solar power plan, backed by a Jordanian prince, could provide the EU with a sixth of its electricity needs - and cut carbon emissions
Robin McKie, science editor The Observer, Sunday December 2 2007


Europe is considering plans to spend more than £5bn on a string of giant solar power stations along the Mediterranean desert shores of northern Africa and the Middle East.

More than a hundred of the generators, each fitted with thousands of huge mirrors, would generate electricity to be transmitted by undersea cable to Europe and then distributed across the continent to European Union member nations, including Britain.

Billions of watts of power could be generated this way, enough to provide Europe with a sixth of its electricity needs and to allow it to make significant cuts in its carbon emissions. At the same time, the stations would be used as desalination plants to provide desert countries with desperately needed supplies of fresh water.

Last week Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan presented details of the scheme - named Desertec - to the European Parliament. 'Countries with deserts, countries with high energy demand, and countries with technology competence must co-operate,' he told MEPs.

The project has been developed by the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Corporation and is supported by engineers and politicians in Europe as well as Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Jordan and other nations in the Middle East and Africa.

Europe would provide initial funds for developing the solar technology that will be needed to run plants as well as money for constructing prototype stations. After that, banks and financial institutions, as well as national governments, would take over the construction programme, which could cost more than £200bn over the next 30 years.

'We don't make enough use of deserts,' said physicist Gerhard Knies, co-founder of the scheme. 'The sun beats down on them mercilessly during the day and heats the ground to tremendous temperatures. Then at night that heat is radiated back into the atmosphere. In other words, it is completely wasted. We need to stop that waste and exploit the vast amounts of energy that the sun beams down to us.'

Scientists estimate that sunlight could provide 10,000 times the amount of energy needed to fulfil humanity's current energy needs. Transforming that solar radiation into a form to be exploited by humanity is difficult, however.

One solution proposed by the scheme's engineers is to use large areas of land on which to construct their solar plants. In Europe, land is costly. But in nations such as Morocco, Algeria, and Libya it is cheap, mainly because they are scorched by the sun. The project aims to exploit that cheap land by use of a technique known as 'concentrating solar power'.


A CSP station consists of banks of several hundred giant mirrors that cover large areas of land, around a square kilometre. Each mirror's position can be carefully controlled to focus the sun's rays onto a central metal pillar that is filled with water. Prototype stations using this technique have already been tested in Spain and Algeria.

Once the sun's rays are focused on the pillar, temperatures inside start to soar to 800C. The water inside the pillar is vaporised into superhot steam which is channelled off and used to drive turbines which in turn generate electricity. 'It is proven technology,' added Knies. 'We have shown it works in our test plants.'

Only small stations have been tested, but soon plants capable of generating 100 megawatts of power could be built, enough to provide the needs of a town. The Desertec project envisages a ring of a thousand of these stations being built along the coast of northern Africa and round into the Mediterranean coast of the Middle East. In this way up to 100 billion watts of power could be generated: two thirds of it would be kept for local needs, the rest - around 30 billion watts - would be exported to Europe.

An idea of how much power this represents is revealed through Britain's electricity generating capacity, which totals 12 billion watts.

But there is an added twist to the system. The superheated steam, after it has driven the plant's turbines, would then be piped through tanks of sea water which would boil and evaporate. Steam from the sea water would piped away and condensed and stored as fresh water.

'Essentially you get electricity and fresh water,' said Knies. 'The latter is going to be crucial for developing countries round the southern Mediterranean and in north Africa. Their populations are rising rapidly, but they have limited supplies of fresh water. Our solar power plants will not only generate electricity that they can sell to Europe, they will supply drinkable water that will sustain their thirsty populations.'

There are drawbacks, however. At present electricity generated this way would cost around 15-20 eurocents (11 to 14p) a kilowatt-hour - almost twice the cost of power generated by coal. At such prices, few nations would be tempted to switch to solar. 'Unless it is extremely cheap, it won't stop people using easy-to-get fossil fuels,' John Gibbins, an energy engineer at Imperial College London, told Nature magazine last week.

However, Desertec's backers say improvements over the next decade should bring the cost of power from its plants to less than 10 eurocents a kilowatt-hour, making it competitive with traditionally generated power.

Other critics say the the plants would be built in several unstable states which could cut their supplies to Europe. Again, Knies dismisses the danger. 'It's not like oil. Solar power is gone once it hits your mirrors. It would simply be lost income.' The European Parliament has asked Desertec to propose short-term demonstration projects.

looks impressive.

forget solar, It is not what we want. For small generating. Yes, but for Nigeria NO,

Kobojunkie 

Look what britain is about to do is different to what this company would for Nigeria. You see, i hope you know what they call a tidal wave. That is what britian hope to use. We are not , we use the wind itself. While britain is on the coast. the company is offshore. So we are talking two different thing. and I would assume, britain cost also include transmission. but you know britain,  now,  They is so much lie involve in what they do. They added their own kick back into it. We are not into 419 like the britain own. No kick back. If you are looking for kick back or bribe the show is over. I am sorry. I would not get involve in scaming the people of Nigeria.

nigeria1:

Kobojunkie 

Look what britain is about to do is different to what this company would for Nigeria. You see, i hope you know what they call a tidal wave. That is what britian hope to use. We are not , we use the wind itself. While britain is on the coast. the company is offshore. So we are talking two different thing. and I would assume, britain cost also include transmission. but you know britain,  now,  They is so much lie involve in what they do. They added their own kick back into it. We are not into 419 like the britain own. No kick back. If you are looking for kick back or bribe the show is over. I am sorry. I would not get involve in scaming the people of Nigeria.

Telling Nigeria to forget solar is the most ridiculous thing you can ever post in here. Does Nigeria have the same climate as the UK does?? Is Nigeria anywhere were the UK is right now? Are the people of Nigeria willing to wait so many more years to start living a better and more developed life?? Are you even serious?? Nigeria wakes up to over 300 days a year of serious solar energy and you instead want us to go copying the UK instead of taking advantage of the source we already have in surplus?? We already have many mini projects to collect data from and confirm the benefits of using the available resource to help supply our needs now and at the same time help clean up our environment. When it comes to cost, over the past couple of years, we have been able to learn that Africans are not as dirt poor as we think they are and even the poor people are willing to invest in effective solutions to their power situation not 4 or 6 years from now but right now.

I am sorry, I do not share you need to copy the british but instead I see that solar is already working small scale in various locations in Nigeria. I see that in Nigeria alone generator users spend over 152 MILLION DOLLARS a year purchasing generators and supplies each year. I see the Nigerian government spending over Naira 92 Million each year on Electricity bills. This money can be used for one time payments of solar energy equipment and installations that will work to tremendously reduce these costs over the years since it is usually a one time fee for installations that will remain functional for the next 10 years at least. I am sorry I do not see things as you do.

The average Home in Africa can start off with a system costing about $2000. For those who claim that is too expensive for africa, then explain to me how the same Nigerian people and businesses continue to spend over $100 million a year on energy. More panels  can be added as home owners get more money and more appliances to be powered, over time. This is like buying a house. It is an investment you make now that will pay you back over and over. It is more deals for your business. It is a better future that you pay for now. We have waited for over 20 years for government to make up it's mind to do something about the power issue, we are in the year 2008 and still nothing but more misused funds. Why would anyone in their right minds advice that the people and businesses continue to wait for the government to do something about power instead of urging the people themselves to take it on themselves to move their own lives forward any way they can.

As per the last couple of lines to your statement there,  I have no idea what scam you are speaking of wanting to perpetrate here. If you do not trust the British at all then why are you here telling us of a plan that they are working on as solution for Africa?? Please get yourself together and focus on solutions you at least have good knowledge of.

We are talking of Govt, and not an individual. How would govt install solar panel on every home in Nigeria. We are talking of bulk electricity generation. but some small home to home generation.
If they need small general wind vade is cheap$8000 would cover may be 5 houses.

bashali:

We are talking of Govt, and not an individual. How would govt install solar panel on every home in Nigeria. We are talking of bulk electricity generation. but some small home to home generation.
If they need small general wind vade is cheap$8000 would cover may be 5 houses.

In many of the other places where this is already happening around the world, government is involved. LGA's can handle this for the people.

Now you confuse me Kobo, in one breath you're saying do not wait for the government who have done nothing for years, and in the next you are saying LGA's can handle this?

In case you don't know, that level happens to be the most corrupt of all governmental levels in Nigeria, as well as being the most ineffective.

What is needed is a deregulated power market. Unlike petroleum, people are already paying extremely high prices for electricity through self generation, small to medium sized power utilities need to spring up and utilize either conventional OR renewable energy sources in a concerted fashion that drops down the unit cost per consumer.

One more thing to mention. . .Africans spend $100 million on energy granted. How much is each household spending? What is the distribution of income available for this $2,000 (N250,000) investment you mention? How many people own homes that you're talking about them building the panels into their homes?

Africa as a whole cannot be lumped into one category, landlocked conventional energy poor countries are more suited for widespread application of these niche technologies, since the cost of getting the conventional fuels would almost be at par as the cost of these initiatives, without the attendant need for continuous fuel importation.

On the other hand, places like Nigeria, Algeria, Angola and the rest have no place focusing the bulk of their energies in this direction, when cheaper alternatives with near immediate impact on the population are available.

debosky:

Now you confuse me Kobo, in one breath you're saying do not wait for the government who have done nothing for years, and in the next you are saying LGA's can handle this?

In case you don't know, that level happens to be the most corrupt of all governmental levels in Nigeria, as well as being the most ineffective.

What is needed is a deregulated power market. Unlike petroleum, people are already paying extremely high prices for electricity through self generation, small to medium sized power utilities need to spring up and utilize either conventional OR renewable energy sources in a concerted fashion that drops down the unit cost per consumer.

One more thing to mention. . .Africans spend $100 million on energy granted. How much is each household spending? What is the distribution of income available for this $2,000 (N250,000) investment you mention? How many people own homes that you're talking about them building the panels into their homes?

Africa as a whole cannot be lumped into one category, landlocked conventional energy poor countries are more suited for widespread application of these niche technologies, since the cost of getting the conventional fuels would almost be at par as the cost of these initiatives, without the attendant need for continuous fuel importation.

On the other hand, places like Nigeria, Algeria, Angola and the rest have no place focusing the bulk of their energies in this direction, when cheaper alternatives with near immediate impact on the population are available.

The dude who posted before you asked of what Government could do with such and I mentioned to him that Government does not necessarily have to be out of the loop when it comes to using solar and helping the people get it.
 
The same corrupt government you mention is the one you also expect to implement a nuclear/coal plan for your plan. Is there not a problem here that you see??
 
No, I posted that Nigerian's alone spent 152 million dollars last year alone on energy generators. That is not the whole of Africa but nigeria alone.


http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx? theartic= Art2008012116027 71

Those smart Chinese and Koreans have cashed in on the ever-widening power supply gap to introduce new lighting devices to the Nigerian market, and they are laughing all the way to the bank as many of us are forced to look for alternative sources of electricity supply for domestic use. Though many of the products are fake and unreliable, what can we do?


Like individuals, many firms who depend on generating sets for running their factories face the unacceptable double whammy of also having to pay huge bills to PHCN for power not supplied. Whenever we accuse the mobile telecom firms of poor and unsatisfactory services, they are quick to point at the escalating production cost occasioned largely by poor and epileptic power supply. MTN, for instance, claims to be spending N700m monthly on diesel to power its generator-driven base station around the country.


The demand for generating sets and ancillary products has soared to unprecedented level in past years. The United Kingdom-based African Review of Business and Technology magazine reckons that Nigeria spends $152m annually on the procurement of different brands of generators. This prodigal nation, according to the survey, is the largest importer of generating sets in the world.


The heavy cost burden imposed by the power supply crisis has been compounded by the rising cost of diesel. Indeed, it is only petrol that is available in Abuja, Lagos and some western parts of the country at official rates. Other petroleum products have never sold anywhere at officially dictated prices. In defiance of official price ceiling, diesel, for instance, is selling at between N90 and N110 per litre, thus making nonsense of the subsidy regime.

Nigerian government alone is to spend over Naira 92 Million Naira paying electricity bill in the year 2008 alone. Are you sure Solar is a more expensive alternative

Solar is cheap and also immediate as well. Please research solar energy ideas and read up on it's installation as well. It is just as cheap as immediate as the generators the the money go to.

common to maintain concrete structure e.g. pedestrian bridge they cannot maintain and their not thinking in a straight line selves are thinking nuclear. i think say dem don swear for these ppl.

During religious riots, our fellow citizens use machetes and Dagger-knife to kill other fellow citizens
During election violence, they use guns and explosives

I have no doubt in my mind that if these idiots can lay their hands on a nuclear device, they would think about annihilating the "other region" completely and what better way to achieve that than by building a "Chernobyl Nuclear plant? in the region?

Bottom line is that we are still evolving.
Air safety is zero.
Road safety is zero
Work safety is zero
Health safety is zero

What makes you think Nuclear safety will be different, is beyond me

Abeg, this is suicidal.

must_a_far:

common to maintain concrete structure e.g. pedestrian bridge they cannot maintain and their not thinking in a straight line selves are thinking nuclear. i think say dem don swear for these ppl.

Clean drinkable pipe borne water, we cannot deliver to every household and we have ponds,lakes, stream all over. Nuclear energy is another avenue to chop money.