By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Delta State Commissioner for Environment, Chief Godspower Asiuwhu, has revealed that the State is making plans for improved renewable energy in the state.
The Commissioner said this while receiving the ‘Delta State Renewable Energy Policy Roadmap’ from management of Clean Tech Hub/ Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation (HBS), a German firm in Asaba.
Asiuwhu said the move for clean energy was to meet the electrification needs of the state following its vulnerability to impact of climate change on account of about 75 per cent of the vast green house gas emissions in Delta that are of oil and gas (fossil fuels) extraction and combustion.
He said it is expected that the anticipated increase in temperature resulting from global warming would continue due to increased pressure and demand for energy from fossil fuels, hence “there is pressing need to transit from an oil-based fossil fuel economy to a more diversified one in which renewable and clean energy plays a more prominent role.”
The commissioner explained that renewable energy covers all forms of power generated from natural sources such as sunlight (solar), wind, water (hydro), geothermal heat, biomass and befouls.
According to him, solar energy can be seen as the anchor behind various forms of renewable energy, as well as the most abundant, stressing that it is estimated that Deita State has a yearly average solar radiance of 4.53 kilowatts per hour/m2/day, the third in the entire South South region.
Asiuwhu said solar photovoltaics (PVs) could produce 1683.8 megawatts in the state, which he believed, was good potential for solar-based renewable energy solution in Delta.
Director, HBS in Nigeria, Jochen Luckscheiter, urged the state government to key into the renewable energy policy, especially now that states are allowed to generate and distribute power on their own to overcome epileptic power supply faced by the consumers over the years.
