Off-grid, Hybrid Power System with Renewables for Rural Electrification

Nigeria is abundantly blessed with all major sources of energy; solar power, wind, geothermal and bio-energy. But my country lacks the expertise to control and utilize these sources of power; our hydro energy is underutilized and there are huge reserves of fossil fuel energy in form of coal, petroleum and gas resources. We are the eighth largest producer of crude oil in the world. We flare about 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day (about 50% of the total daily production). Currently, we have three hydro and eleven thermal generating plants with total installed capacity of 7876MW while the total output capacity stands less than 4000MW. Our over 140 million population makes output per head 21W. Average consumption time is 2 hours per day. Therefore, economic progress and prosperity remain an illusion. For the most populous black nation in the world, this is close to a catastrophe; simply unacceptable.