[b]


Niger Delta to get solar engineering for rural electrification

MONDAY, 05 DECEMBER 2011 09:53

THE Federal Government has given its approval to the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) to begin the demonstration of solar panel, solar engineering and solar energy for rural electrification of locally produced solar panels in the Niger Delta.

Speaking to the press at the Nigeria Energy and Power Summit (NEPS), the Director General of the agency, Prof. Olusegun Adewoye, said: "Right now, the Federal Executive Council has approved our paper on demonstration of solar panel, solar engineering and solar energy, to demonstrate rural electrification in Niger Delta. Within a space of four months, we would have finished installing all the solar panels in those places. It is a pilot scheme. We have 7.5 megawatts capacity and this is a small job to demonstrate.

According to him, NASENI was using the plant to demonstrate that solar panel manufacturing business was real and possible in Nigeria and hope government will now put money in this plant and increase its capacity saying that "we also hope that the private sector will help in developing the plant. We are also advising states to setup their solar projects because NASENI can do a business plan for them to produce locally."

He said the agency was proposing the establishment of a solar panel production plant in each geo-political zones capable of producing 25MWs worth of solar panels yearly. This, according to him would be established on a public-private partnership system (PPP) with federal and state governments providing catalytic support.

Prof. Adewoye explained that energy is central to sustainable development and poverty reduction efforts affecting all aspects of development and none of the Millennium Development Goals can be met without major improvement in the quality and quantity of energy services in developing countries, while describing lack of access to modern energy services as a major obstacle for people to move away from poverty and upgrade their quality of life.

The NASENI boss said the Karshi Solar Panel Plant is stocked with over 1,000 solar plants of various ratings in addition to semi-knocked down components and large stock of raw materials to roll out more solar panels of various specifications.

He further said the agency has successfully established a 7.5MW solar panel manufacturing plant in Karshi, Abuja with a production-line to facilitate a smooth roll-out of solar panels. The facility is one of only three available in Africa with the others located in South Africa and Senegal mainly for export.

http://www.nationaldailyngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2157:niger-delta-to-get-solar-engineering-for-rural-electrification&catid=293:money-market&Itemid=568
[/b]

Seems like the Niger Delta is the only part of Nigeria that needs reconstructing.

Recent article from the states ,

Solar Energy Is Affordable but We’ll Never See It

Read more: Solar Energy Is Affordable but We’ll Never See It | Godfather Politics http://godfatherpolitics.com/1885/solar-energy-is-affordable-but-well-never-see-it/#ixzz1ffWtDn00





With solar companies like Solyndra going bankrupt, some analysts are saying that the environmentally friendly ways of producing electricity are too costly.  They claim that to mass produce electricity via solar panels takes far too much land and therefore is not really feasible.

But there is an alternative that’s been hidden from the public for over 30 years.

In the 1970s and 80s, there was a guy in our church that worked for a major technology company.  He had a PhD in physics and worked on solar energy.  He not only told me that the technology to supply affordable solar energy to every home is possible, he showed me.

Richard invited my wife and I over for dinner once and to show me his house.  He had a very nice three level home with lots of windows.  The very center of house was open from the ground floor up so that people could see and converse from the first, second and third floors. The livable square footage in his house was almost three times what my house was.

It was not uncommon for my summer electric bills to run around $350 per month trying to keep the house comfortable in the Arizona sun.  Other homes the size of Richard’s had summer electric bills easily exceeding $1000 per month.  Richard told me that his summer electric bills ranged from -$150 to -$400 per month.

His small solar panel system was so efficient that about 9-10 months a year, it produced more than his household (wife and three daughters) could use.  The excess power was run through a meter and sold back to the utility company.

He then took me to his back yard to show me the solar panel array that he built.  It wasn’t nearly as large as I expected.  As Richard proudly showed me the solar unit, he explained that one thing that made it more efficient than most is that he had a solar light detector that helped keep the panels lined up with the sun’s rays to keep them running at peak capacity.  As sun moved across the sky, the panels also changed angle to follow it.

I asked him how much it cost to build and install his solar panel system and he told me that for a house like his, it would pay for itself in less than a year.  For smaller homes he estimated it would take about 2 years to pay for itself.  His solar units were unlike any that I’ve seen on homes then or since.  The home solar units in use today still do not use the same high efficiency levels as the one He built.

However, he told me that the technology he used would probably never see public or commercial use because it would cost the power companies millions of dollars in lost revenue.  It was just like the carburetor my neighbor built for the Chevy Vega years ago.  He worked at the GM proving grounds east of town and he developed a fuel efficient carburetor that in town got 100 miles per gallon of fuel.  He told me it would never see the light of day and that it would sit on the GM shelves with all of the other energy saving devices they created because the auto industry was married to the oil industry.

My friend Richard told me that the energy companies work very closely with all major technology companies to ensure that they both continue to make money.  Then Richard told me that if a company mass produced solar units like, that it would bring the cost way down from what he spent out of pocket.  Mass production would make the solar units much more economically feasible for many homeowners, but the utilities won’t allow it to happen.

If that was the technology that existed over 30 years ago, then who’s to say that it hasn’t been improved, refined and made much more affordable today.  Can you imagine selling electricity back to the power company most of the year?  The technology is out there, but I doubt if we’ll ever see it in our lifetime because of the utility companies.

http://godfatherpolitics.com/1885/solar-energy-is-affordable-but-well-never-see-it/

Free energy technology forum. Plenty of insightful articles!


Stories in the "Free Energy" category

http://beforeitsnews.com/stories/in/0000000000000125




Top free energy stories of 2010 and beyond

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/363/566/Top_free_energy_stories_of_2010_and_beyond.html