Auxano Solar, an indigenous solar solution provider company, has launched its 100 megawatts (MW) automated Solar PV manufacturing plant on Thursday, September 28, 2023, in Lagos.
The conception of the Solar PV factory, which is located in Ibeju Lekki, started in 2020 and All On, a Shell funded impact investor, invested $2 million in the project.
Speaking with BusinessDay at the commissioning, Chuks Umezulora, the Co-founder and CEO of the company, said that the focus of Auxano Solar is to solve one of Nigeria’s most dire problems – access to electricity.
Nigeria has been designated the country with the largest number of people lacking access to electricity with 86 million of its over 200 million population living without electricity as of 2021, a joint report by multiple international agencies, has revealed.
“Our focus is to penetrate the Nigerian market before moving towards exporting the Solar PV to neighbouring countries,” he said. “Our target is both the formal – solar firms who are into mini-grids, commercial and industrial solar providers – and the informal sector – the importers of solar panels for resale.”
Umezulora said the major challenges to getting the factory up was accessing finance (especially the capital expenditure) to deliver the project at the forecasted time.
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“This facility is one of many to come and we look forward to eradicating the numbers of people in the country without access to electricity by providing affordable Solar systems,” the CEO said.
Auxano Solar is a one of the growing renewable energy companies in Nigeria with emphasis on solar power.
“With this facility, we will be able to close the deficit in electricity accessibility in the country,” said Demoka Onanuga, the Chairman of Auxano Solar.
According to him, the facility tends toward reducing the unit rate of solar power in Nigeria and making it affordable for households and businesses, thereby reducing the numbers of people without access to electricity.
Besides manufacturing solar PV modules, the indigenous company is also involved in the design, installation and sales of solar power systems and components such as inverters, batteries, charge controllers, etc.
Wiebe Boer, the President of Calvin University, said the absorption of the 100 MW production by the market could translate to renewable growth in Nigeria and Africa.
“Some years back, the entire installed base of solar power in Nigeria was 200 me but now, with this factory, Nigeria is heading in the right direction,” said Boer, who is also the former CEO of All On.
According to All On, its mission is to increase access to commercial energy products and services for underserved and unserved off-grid energy markets in Nigeria.
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