The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu yesterday stated that uninterrupted power supply may continue to elude Nigerians if the government continued to rely essentially on natural gas for the generation of electricity.
Onu stated this in Abuja while declaring open a two-day National Technical Validation Workshop on Sustainable Energy for All, SE4ALL, organised by Energy Commission of Nigeria, ECN, in collaboration with the New Partnership for Africa‘s Development, NEPAD, Nigeria and the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP.
He reiterated that there is an urgent need by the Federal Government to diversify the country’s source of energy needs so that if one source has a problem, the other could make up for it.
The Minister, who stressed that this needs to be done before meaningful industrialisation of the country could be realised, stated that his ministry would embark on research on how coal fire plant could be made more friendly to the environment.
According to him, “We have relied essentially on natural gas for the generation of electricity. This has created a lot of problems for the nation, particularly when gas supply is interrupted.
“The geographical location of Nigeria in the tropics gives us great advantage in utilising solar energy and also wind energy. We will also look at other renewable sources of energy.
“Virtually all the developed and emerging countries including the United States of America (USA), China, as well as Germany and Russia rely heavily on coal for electricity generation.”