The epileptic power supply that has paralysed the Nigerian Economy is forcing many to seek alternative means to power their homes as well as businesses, giving rise to an off grid market valued at $52.5bn as at 2018.
According to the International Energy Agency, about 55% of the total population of Nigeria lacks access to electricity from the grid, to put this in perspective, if the total number of Nigerians who lack access to electricity is a country on it’s own, it will be larger than Tunisia or Belgium.
One of the many high sides of keying into energy industry is the high demand for power especially in Africa, with the possibility of reducing Energy cost by a very high margin, connecting off grid communities that normally wouldn’t have had access to stable source of power, this is the sole responsibility of Agencies like the Rural Electrification Agency of Nigeria (REAN) with projects all over the country aimed at promoting sustainability as well as dependence on the grid.
The demand for Energy is projected to be on the rise with the UN projecting the population of Nigeria to reach a massive 402 million people in 2050, that is more than 100% increase, and sustaining this population will require sustainable Energy in form of solar technology to power businesses and homes, If the grid cannot support the current population, imagine what opportunities lies in servicing a market of almost 300 million people.
Given that other sources of power in the country have been found to have one downside or another including air pollution which causes respiratory irritation, asphyxiation as well as death, noise pollution as well as pollution of water bodies, it is predicted that there will be a shift from the traditional power generation to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly method of electricity generation, this is the vision of the management of Wavetra Energy Academy to train as many as possible on how solar technology works in other to be able cater for the explosion in demand which the Nigerian market will experience in years to come.
While reducing carbon footprints is quite important for sustainability of the environment, governments around the world are making laws to promote the use of renewable energy, the opportunities that abound for solar technicians as well as stakeholders in the renewable energy industry is massive and more than ever it is important to key into the expansion and opportunities it offers.
“We are taking this trainings further by inculcating digital marketing and the opportunities it offers, the ability to reach a large number of audience in real time with little budget, we don’t just teach about renewable Energy, we teach them how to scale using recent technologies in information technology” said John Onuorah the Digital media Manager for Wavetra Energy Academy
Wavetra Energy has trained almost a 5,000 students in the solar installation and has continued to do so using industry standards.