• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Nigeria remain on fringes as offshore wind market approaches $225bn

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Nigeria’s renewable energy industry has made progress in harnessing the sunshine but still struggles to figure out how to make the most the country’s abundant wind resources as global offshore wind market races on.

Offshore wind market could grow to be worth about $225 billion annually by 2025, bigger than the current offshore oil and gas market, based on a development cost of $3 million per gigawatt, with a global generating capacity of 70 GW.

Offshore refers to inshore water zones such as seas, lakes and sheltered coastal areas. Offshore wind comprises wind resources within these locations. Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the use of turbines installed offshore, usually on the continental shelf, to harvest wind energy for electricity generation. As a result of the high wind speed available in offshore sites compared to onshore, offshore wind power generation is higher.

According to Jarand Rystad, founder of research consultancy Rystad Energy, the current cost of floating wind schemes is estimated to be about $5 million-$10 million per GW, double the price of fixed offshore turbines and in comparison to onshore costs of between $1 million and $2 million per GW. Rystad data show that Europe, North America and Asia will dominate this growth market over the next decade. There is no mention of Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy.

But Kenya, East Africa’s biggest economy is already building Africa’s largest wind project, which will cost $775 million. The project is aimed at reducing electricity costs and dependence on fossil fuels, nudging the nation to meet an ambitious goal of 100 percent green energy next year.

The sprawling wind farm of 365 turbines on the shores of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya was designed to boost electricity supply by 13 percent, giving more Kenyans access at a lower cost.

In Nigeria however, Research and Development (R & D) tailored towards Wind Energy Technology (WET) have been few, slow and not encouraging. The available data have not also been adequately employed to develop physical models that would translate the huge resources of wind to power.

Until recently, what was available was a small data system pointing to the availability of wind as a source of potential electricity production within the nation. Basic researches into the act of tapping wind for electricity have been non-existent within the country.

This is because such practices involve funding and such funds have not been available anywhere for access by wind energy researchers. More so, research tailored to development of low-cost materials for wind turbines and other renewable energy technology applications should begin.

This will invariably eliminate the huge initial capital involved in starting Wind energy business and also further reduce the operating and management cost of the technology.

According to results from researches and wind data from Nigerian meteorological stations, it has been established that wind speeds are generally weak in the southern part of Nigeria, except for offshore areas from Lagos through Ondo, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa to AkwaIbom States have prospects for harvesting strong wind energy throughout the year.

States like Jos, Katsina and Maiduguri, possess high wind speed amidst condition such as topography and roughness of surfaces. Further research revealed that wind speed of about 8.07 meters per second (m/s) can be harnessed from the northern part of Nigeria.