Nigeria is set to benefit from renewable energy projects to be executed by a combined force of Schneider Electric and Abuja-based EM-ONE energy solutions.
EM-ONE Energy Solutions, a sustainable energy engineering company, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Schneider Electric, a leader in the digital transformation of energy and automation, to jointly develop and execute projects which will localize and industrialize renewable energy solutions in West Africa.
The MoU builds on both companies’ expertise and aims to expand the electrification footprint in the region as well as enable local development through job creation, the reduction of carbon emissions and providing greater access to social benefits such as healthcare and education.
With 600 million people in Africa lacking access to reliable energy, expanding the existing fossil-based approach to electrification is both expensive and has a deleterious effect on the environment. Installing such systems has already proven to be timely and incapable to electrify the growing continent’s power requirements.
READ: Renewable Energy sector created millions of jobs in 2018
Decentralized, de-carbonized and digital solutions in the form of mini-grids and micro-grids dearly have a role to play to tackle the region’s electrification challenge and empowering its economic development for the years to come. According to the United Nations, 200,000 mini-grids are required to power the content to reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 7 (“Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modem energy for all”) by 2030.
Within Africa, the Nigerian government is leading the charge in providing a supportive regulatory and financial environment that incentivizes private sector players including developers, financers and experienced energy firms to work together to deploy mini-grids and micro-grids at a large scale to help the country leapfrog its’ electrification challenges.
As Africa’s most populous country, solutions that can be implemented effectively in Nigeria pave the way forward to electrify the rest of the continent
Mir Islam, EM ONE s CEO comments, “Having worked in Nigeria’s power sector for over 20 years, we at EM ONE believe that customized and decentralized energy solutions built locally that encourage the capacity building are the way forward for a sustainable means to electrify the continent. We are looking forward to continuing to work closely with Schneider to make significant impact in electrifying and building an autonomous Africa.”
Paul-Francois Cattier, Schneider‘s Vice President Business Development Africa & Middle East comments, “Africa today is comparable to China 40 years ago in 2050, it will account for 30% of the global population according to the United Nations and could be one of the world’s top 5 economic powers by 2050. Rather than importing mini-grids produced in Europe, Asia or North America, we want to create an African mini-grid industry with operators, integrators, investors and local jobs.”