INTRODUCTION

It is no news that one of the serious challenges for different regime of the governments in
Nigeria is producing adequate power for the country. Also, it is no wonder that the economic
growth of a country, its energy availability and sustainable developments are joined at the
hip. In the year 1960 to 1979, the Nigeria Thermal plant and Hydro-power plants were
established. From the time of the establishment till 1999 when President Olusegun Obasanjo
reformed the power sector, the capacity of the energy generation was the same. The main
reason for the reform was to promote autonomous power generation. By 2010, a target of
10,000 MW was to be achieved so licenses were issued to some private companies and states
to build up a project that will meet up with the target. Due to this action, independent power
plant were built by both state government and major oil company (in the Niger Delta area).
Nonetheless, the total electricity produced by the end of the target year 2010 did not reach the
target and was not enough for the country as most Nigerians were without electricity.

Energy is key to every aspect of the socio-economic life. Most advanced nation, if not all
have attained extraordinary point of constancy and efficiency in energy supply and
management. With collective source of energy in a country comes its energy security. The
sustained growth of all sectors of an economy including small-medium scale business is
highly dependent on the supply of adequate energy. It is not just by having different of
sources of energy but by the proper utilization of the ways of achieving high efficiency in the
conversion system and revolution in energy transformation and management system. The
stability in energy supply helps to sustain different sector of the economy like the agricultural
and industrial sector of which helps to increase add to the country’s income. With
improvements in other sectors like transport system, educational opportunities, health care
delivery and other social service transforms to sustainable development. No one source of
energy is enough to deliver all the energy needed for the sustainable development in the
activity of steady increase in a country’s population, development and industrialization,
therefore, it is economically needful that energy sources should be diversified.

There has been a tremendous increase in the rate of urbanization and growth in the transport
sector and industry mainly propelled by the fossil fuel since Nigeria’s independence. In the
recent years, supply has been grossly insufficient as the demand is higher than supply. The
problem of meeting present energy demand Nigeria vast in the sense that while seeking for
sustainable energy supply and deciding on energy, the ecological problem of fossil fuels
needs to be well-thought-out. Therefore, in solving our energy source constriction,
possibilities in a forthcoming energy mix should equally be ecologically friendly, sustainable
and efficient.

The objectives of this paper are: (a) to pinpoint the utilizable energy resources in Nigeria (b)
to make certain, the effect of current energy mix on gross domestic product of Nigeria (c) to
make certain, the ways of enhancing efficient energy supply through a need-based integrated
energy system.

Aim: Making Electricity for Nigeria worth Mix.

SOME ENERGY SOURCES

Non Renewable Energy Sources
Coal
According to the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN, 2003) coal mining in Nigeria started
in 1906 and recorded an output of 24,500 tons in 1916. Production was at 70% of commercial
energy consumption of the country and peaked at 905,000 tons in 1958 – 1959. The coal at
that time was used mostly by the Nigeria Railway Corporation until the demand dwindles due
to the discovery of diesel-powered engines. After the discovery of oil, importance on coal
began to reduce and coal product deteriorated. After a year in 2001, coal accounted for up to
0.02% of commercial energy in Nigeria.
Table 1: Coal Reserve in Nigeria
Proven coal reserves About 639 million metric tones
Inferred reserves 2.75 billion metric

Table 2: Coal Production Potential in Nigeria

Underground production 200,000 to 600,000 metric tons per year
potential
Surface production potential 400,000 to 800,000 metric tons per year

Table 3: Coal fields in Nigeria Location

22 Coal fields Spread in over 13 states
Consist of approximately:
49% sub-bituminous coal, 39% bituminous coal and 12% Lignite Coals.

Crude Oil
Crude oil was first discovered at Oloibiri in Delta state in the year 1956. As it is now, oil
accounts for over 95% of export earnings and 65% of government revenue according to the
International Monetary Fund- IMF. Nigeria has the 10th largest oil reserves in the world. The
Nigeria production and exportation of crude oil accounts for 90% of the Gross Domestic
Earnings. The Nigeria oil reserve situated along Niger River Delta and offshore in Bright of
Benin, Gulf of Guinea and bright of Bonny is an equivalent of 37.2billion barrels of oil.
Nigeria as the largest oil producing company in Africa, as at 2009 had its production capacity
at over 2.2 million barrels per day. In 1970, there was an oil boom which moved the
country’s attention from their major focus, Agriculture, at that time and contributed greatly to
the country’s GDP.
Ever since then, oil has been leading in the energy scene of the country at all levels of
economic activities.

Natural Gas
In the oil extraction activities in Nigeria, Gas was discovered. Nigeria gas reserve is
estimated to be about 163 Trillion Standard Cubic feet which is far greater than the oil
resources in terms of energy. Nigeria currently has the largest natural gas reserves in Africa
but the sector is still underdeveloped as most of the gas are being flared due to the lack of the
gas processing facilities in Nigeria. Despite the fine per 100cf of gas imposed by the Nigeria
government in the 1980s about 19trillion cubic feet of gas has been flared between 1960 to
2004 and some 2 billion cubic feet annually with a daily flare of 2.5 million cubic feet since
2005. Nigeria has therefore accounted for 19 % of total gas flared globally each year for
decades making all efforts to end gas flaring since 1984 futile. Natural gas is a cleaner and
environmentally safer source of energy than oil; it is potentially utilizable and will contribute
greatly to socio-economic development of Nigeria.

Tar Sand
There are about 30 billion barrels of oil equivalent deposited by Tar in Nigeria and this
according to the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) in the FGN (2003).The derivable of
Tar such as bitumen are used in road construction and industries. It will not be difficult to
refining heavy crude from tar since Kaduna has been refining imported heavy crude. Thus,
the utilization of tar sand, the harnessing of the tar power and the integration tar sand into the
country’s energy system will contribute meaningfully to its energy demands for sustainable
economic growth and development of our country Nigeria.
Nuclear Energy
Uranium and Thorium are nuclear component key minerals. Uranium has been discovered in
large deposit in a Nigerian state known as Jos as far back as 1947 by the FGN. In 1979, about
707,000km2 of land has been covered for surveys. The merit and demerit again nuclear
hazard should be well carefully considered before Nigeria decides to go into nuclear
technology.

Renewable Energy Source in Nigeria

Nigeria is endowed with abundant alternative and renewable energy potentials in solar,
hydro, wind, biomass, wave/tidal, geo-thermal etc. Climate change is a recurring global issue
that all country suffer from. Therefore, there is need to treat the climate threat issue and seek
an alternative and environmentally friendly energy sources both globally and nationally.
Hence, a strong exploitation of Nigeria vast renewable energy deposits is a step in the right
direction to a great energy mix in the in the country. In Nigeria, renewable energy for is an
ideal case because most of the residents reside in a countryside areas with geographical
limitation of connecting to the national energy grid.

Hydropower
The Nigeria river system, which has a great potential for large-scale hydropower
development of greater than 100MW are formed by the two main rivers in Nigeria, the River
Niger and River Benue. When planning, small rivers and streams should also be analyzed
because they provide opportunities for small-scale hydropower projects of less than 10MW.
The Nigeria hydropower system have the capabilities of producing about 36,000GWh of
electricity since the total exploitable large-scale potential in Nigeria is over 10,000MW.
Likewise, the small scale hydropower make about 734MW available for consumption. Small
hydropower plants for electricity provision are best suitable in remote areas. The Nigeria
national grid has about 32% of hydropower installed in it to add to the electrical generation
capacity according to the FGN in 2003.

Solar Energy
Nigeria’s annual average total solar radiation is from about 12.6MJ/m 2-day in the seaside
latitudes to about 25.2MJ/m2 –day in the far North. About 2.54 * 106 MWh of electrical
power can be obtained from the sun; equivalent to 4.66 million barrels of oil per day if solar
energy appliances with just 5% efficiency are used to cover only 1% of the country’s surface
area. The two ways in which solar energy is utilized is are: solar thermal for heating, cooking,
drying etc. and solar photovoltaic (direct conversion of sunlight to electricity). Solar energy
utilizations are ecologically friendly and thus vital for agriculture, industrial growth and rural
development. It is very much possible to generate and supply photovoltaic power to into the
Nigeria national grid. Due to the limitless capability and potential of solar energy to be
installed at every point and load centers, solar energy is the most promising of the renewable
energy sources and this makes it highly recommendable for isolated localities of the country.
For an efficient and sustainable solar energy development in Nigeria, a lot of technical skills
are needed.

Biomass Energy
The available biomass material in Nigeria include: wood, forage grasses and shrubs, animal
waste, agricultural and forestry residue, municipal and industrial waste, as well as aquatic
biomass. Biomass provides us with a cleaner source of energy than the combustion type.
They can be used for both domestic and industrial purposes. They are materials that can be
converted into fuel briquettes. They can also be converted into cooking gas which is a
complete clean energy in biogas digesters. Jatropha, sugarcane and maize are energy plants
and have chosen to be a clean bio-fuel. The Nigeria biomass resources is abundant and are
ready for full scale utilization. A great amount of fuel woods is consumed annually in Nigeria
for cooking and other related domestic activities. There has been a depletion of Nigeria’s
biomass and this is due to the high demand for wood by the by the construction company and
the furniture industries. About 200 million tons of dry biomass is produced by the forage
grasses and shrubs and this gives up to 2.28 * 106MJ of energy.
Another form of biomass are the crop residues and the waste produce which estimate about
6.1 million tons of dry biomass with the energy approximation of 5.3 * 1011MJ. Nigeria
forestland accounts for about 9.9% of its total landmass. Animals and poultry produced waste
gives about 227,500 tons of waste with the energy content of 2.2 * 109MJ when converted to
biogas.
Research shows that about 80 of energy used in Nigeria coming from off –grid are used by
the people in the rural area (81 million of them who live without electricity) for heating and
cooking needs and this off-grid energy comes from fuel woods. Even that every good things
has a disadvantage, despite the abundance of fuel wood in Nigeria huge forestry, firewood
consumption and its insufficient burning with the emission of CO 2, has a very serious effect
of the environment and climate.

Wind Energy
According to the Climate Institute (2010), studies have been done on the potentials of wind
energy in Nigeria. There is a great probability of about 98% of having a wind speed of about
2 meters per second/hourly wind speed in the South East, Umudike, Abia State precisely,
with a maximum extractable speed estimated at 11.3kw. Maiduguri, Borno and its environs,
can produce enough wind speed and produce power from themselves, power that is estimated
between 4.712 and 27.449MW hours per month at an energy density height of 25 meters. In
the coastal city of Port Harcourt and in the arid region around Sokoto, the potential wind
energy ranges from 2.23m/s to 3.89m/s with the maximum extractable power per unit area for
the two sites at 4.51 and 21.97 respectively.

General Idea of Nigeria’s Energy Mix Plan

Nigeria has not been able to provide a rational and comprehensive policy trust since her
independence in 1960. There is an independent energy policy holding the individual
subsectors in the energy industry which has brought about conflict at the expense of the
national economy. A national energy policy was drafted for the first time in 1993 by the
Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) which was review in 1996 and adopted in 2003. This
provided an avenue for all the country’s energy resources to be development and exploited in
order to achieve and promote sustainable energy supply in the country. It also covered the
environment, energy productivity, energy funding and energy policy implementation of the
key energy sectors in the country. This policy helped the country to strategize well for the
systematic exploitation of the energy resources, the development and use of manpower,
supply of rural energy needs, energy security and private subdivision participation. For better
implementation and reaching of the goal the plans were divided into short-medium and long–
term measures. It is expected that the policy document will provide an outline on how to
achieve the development of the energy sector for the contributions to the national economy.
The 2003 National Energy Policy Plan acknowledged several possibly utilizable energy
sources in Nigeria that is of great importance to the country if the county should be on the
pursuit for energy mix for sustainable development in Nigeria.

Energy consumption in Nigeria by Type

Transportation and conversion of energy resources to electricity for household and industry
are the major areas of energy utilization. Electricity was first introduced in Lagos in 1896
with about 60KW of electricity which was at that time, higher than the maximum demand as
at then. It was until 1946 that electricity generation officially started when the colonial
government mandated the Public Works Department to supply electricity to Lagos. The
Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) was established in 1950, charged with electricity
development and supply. Then the Niger Dams Authority was established by an Act of
Parliament to generate electricity from water power along the Niger River and elsewhere. On
April 1, 1972, the ECN and NDA were merged into the National Electric Power Authority
(NEPA) responsible for electricity generation and distribution throughout the country. In
2004, NEPA was remanded to Power Holding Company of Nigeria and struggled to meet the
rising demands and till today, majority of Nigerians have no electricity or inadequate supply.
In the quest to resolve this energy crisis, Nigeria’s energy consumption mix is dominated by
overdependence on biomass, particularly fire wood as fuel wood. Although, oil is the strength
of the economy, it influence to the energy consumption mix is however terrible. Well, the
reason is not far-fetched: In Nigeria now, not more than 40% of 150 million people are
connected to the grid electricity and without power over 60% of the time. The interest in coal
over the years has declined and this is due to the the wake of oil discovery and the 1970’s
boom. Combustible renewable firewood inclusive has a record 82.2%, followed by natural
gas 6.8% and oil 10.6%. Hydroelectricity has only 0.4%.