Oriental Renewable Solutions (“Oriental”), an Oriental Group company has signed a 20-year dollar denominated Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Nigerian Bulk Energy Trader (“NBET”) for the company’s 50MW solar power project in Jigawa State.
The agreement forms part of a wider NBET process to sign up PPAs to deliver 1.2GW of additional generation capacity to the Nigerian grid through a total of 12 solar power projects spread across Nigeria.
Oriental Renewable Solutions was established to deliver on the potential that renewable energy offers Nigeria to address a long-term power deficit that continues to hold back economic growth.
The Jigawa project marks the first project in a broader strategy to establish a significant footprint in Nigeria’s fast emerging solar power generation segment. The project is expected to be completed between 18 and 24 months of financial close.
Muhammadu Indimi, Oriental Group chairman, while commenting on the signature of the PPA, said: “This marks a major milestone for the Oriental Group, as we implement our strategy to diversify into new areas of the Nigerian economy. We recognise the importance of power generation to Nigeria’s socio-economic development and believe that Nigeria’s natural resources extend beyond its traditional dependence on oil and gas extraction to include many more resources that new technology is making available to us. We hope that by proving the viability of renewable solutions in Nigeria, we can deepen our nation’s long term capability to deliver the power that we so desperately need, while simultaneously delivering much needed investment across a swathe of northern Nigeria.”
Nigeria has installed generation capacity of 12.6GW, but availability of considerably less than that, and average transmission of between 3 and 4.5GW of the last year. This is further affected by disruption to gas supply, on which the vast majority of Nigeria’s power infrastructure relies. The development of significant generation capacity in solar, and other renewables, offers a strong counterbalance to the vulnerability of gas production and distribution infrastructure, while significantly reducing Nigeria’s long-term carbon footprint.
OLUSOLA BELLO
