From Magnus Eze, Abuja
United Kingdom based energy expert has projected that Nigeria could generate 60,000megawatts of electricity from renewables by 2050, if its potential is fully harnessed.
The senior lecturer in Petroleum Engineering, University of Portsmouth, Dr. Mohamed Hassan-Sayed, stated this in a paper titled, “Powering the future of Nigeria”, which he delivered to the members of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) in Abuja.
Hassan-Sayed noted that the country has the capacity to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy within the next 30 years if the necessary policies were put in place to properly harness the various energy sources of solar, wind and hydro.
“If you think about water, Nigeria already generates about 2000 megawatts of electricity from water, but if we utilize the 60 per cent of water resources in Nigeria, we can increase that by three times as much. So renewable energy has a successful future here in Nigeria, it needs a successful policy behind it. The National Bank of Africa has set up 60 million pounds of funding in which Nigeria can access,” he stated.
Also speaking, NSE President, Mr. Otis Anyaeji, said the society would leverage on the relationship with the University of Portsmouth to conduct upgrade programme for holders of Higher National Diploma (HND) in engineering; in order to qualify them for registration with the body.
He added that the collaboration will also lead to the training of Nigerian engineers in specialist areas including engineering economy; cost engineering, project management, safety engineering and some other programmes not offered at first degree in Nigerian universities.