A United Kingdom-based AceOn Group has developed an affordable solar storage device to bring power to those experiencing energy poverty in Nigeria and other African countries.
The development of the power unit received UK research and innovation funding because it is possibly one of the first to use sodium-ion batteries, which are made from cheap materials, so are not as environmentally damaging to process as lithium-ion batteries, which are currently used in phones, laptops and electric cars.
According to Mark Thompson, managing director for AceOn Group, the unit can collect solar power through the day, before powering equipment at night.
Harsh Pershad, senior innovation lead at Innovate UK, which provides money and support to organisations to make new products and services, said, “I think it will be a win-win for us to invest and partner with the most rapidly emerging economies right now”.
“If we can support them at this crucial stage when all the infrastructure decisions are made. then we can benefit from our jobs here… we can also help others to develop, that’s got to be a win-win,” Pershad said.
Read also: How solar powered cold storage can cut Nigeria’s perishable food waste by 30%
AceOn Group also announce it will partner with a Nigerian company called Nevadic for the distribution of the products across Nigeria’s 774 local government areas.
“You don’t need to worry about visiting the petrol or gas station to buy petrol on a daily basis, because the sun is always there for you, so you save your time and save your energy and it doesn’t bother the environment,” Dave Nwosu, the CEO of the company, Nevadic, said.
Over the years, lack of adequate power supply to rural communities has resulted in people living without electricity for years and businesses crippling without electricity.
Over 85 million Nigerians do not have access to grid electricity, according to the World Bank, representing 43 per cent of the country’s population, making Nigeria the country with the largest energy access deficit in the world.
The World Bank revealed that the lack of electricity supply has significantly affected citizens and businesses, resulting in annual economic losses estimated at $26.2bn (N10.1trn), which is equivalent to about two per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The World Bank Doing Business 2020 ranked Nigeria 171 out of 190 countries in getting electricity.
Rural and coastal communities are most affected, prompting over-reliance on power generators with their ever-rising costs and health hazards.
