Skip to main content

Advert

Ng

UNILORIN partners US coy to build $1.5bn solar energy plant – VC

The University of Ilorin is partnering with a U.S company to build a 500 megawatts solar energy plant as part of efforts to tackle the challenge of power supply in Nigeria.


Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, disclosed this while speaking at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum in Abuja on Sunday.
“The 500 megawatts is too much for the university alone to utilize; in fact, we in the university require just a maximum of four megawatts.
 “Which means the extra 496 megawatts would have to be given to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, either the immediate community or nationwide. I think that is what is being processed.
 “We have had talks with various stakeholders who are going to be party to the consumption and payment of the 496 megawatts because the project is going to cost about 1.5 billion dollars.
 “It is a heavy investment. Which means the company that is going to bring the 1.5 billion dollars, has to be convinced that it will recoup its investment.
 “They (company) have made tremendous progress, they have talked to the government, they are talking with agencies of government and by the time they harmonize all these product of their discussion,  I am  sure they will take off and the government and Nigeria will now be the overall beneficiary of all those efforts.’’
 The Mr Brain Travis, Managing Director of the American company, said the selection of Uni-Ilorin as its partner was because the university had many reliable innovative projects.
Travis, who described the project as the largest solar plant in Africa, said it would help empower the locals in terms of employment and training.
“Most of us probably know there are difficulties with the whole power system in Nigeria. We will all like to have stable power.
“We also are going to not sell into the national grid but try to solve the problem by entering into direct contract with Discos; because of the location of Ilorin, we have direct access to six district discos up and down the coast.
“Each of those discos is determining how much of the power they want; they determine when they need the power, how they need it and how they are going to sell it.
“So we will be effectively dealing with the people who need the power. So that we do not have the supply chain issues that exists now and that is the reason we are doing the solar project here. It has got good solar radiation.
“We have an excellent host; you heard about the innovative projects of the Vice-Chancellor and it’s that spirit that allows us to come in and negotiate for a significant piece of property.
“Also there is an obligation I understand from the university to help the local community. So we are going to be hiring local people as contractors as well as training local people in solar and renewable.’’
He said the project would be completed in 18 months.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

13/11/2017 Polytechnic lecturers begin strike

Academic activities in the nation’s polytechnics will be disrupted from Monday, November 13, 2017 as the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) commence an indefinite strike to press government to meet their demands. The union accused the Ministry of Education of  failing to attend a conciliatory meeting called by the Ministry of Labour and Employment aimed at resolving their demands. It said the Ministry only sent a deputy director without a mandate to attend the meeting. National President of the union, Comrade Usman  Dutse said the union was declaring a total and indefinite strike, adding that the government was using endless verification exercises to delay the payment of entitlements of members of the union. He said while the union is not against government carrying out verification exercises, it should not endless and the exercise should not be used to denied workers their rights. He said that despite the 21 days notice given to the government, they did n...

JAMB extends registration by two weeks

The Joint Admissions and MatriculationS Board yesterday announced extension of registration for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) by two weeks. The extension covers April 19 – 5th May. The examination body also announced suspension of the conduct of its mock examination scheduled to hold yesterday in some selected centers across the country indefinitely. JAMB registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, told reporters in Abuja the postponement of the UTME mock exam was due to failure from its technical partners. He also announced shift in the conduct of UTME scheduled to begin on 6th May. The exercise, according to him, will commence on 13th – 20th May. “The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board wishes to apologies to candidates and other stakeholders. “We could not go on with the mock examination and hereby announce extension of registration exercise of the 2017 UTME. “Instead of the earlier announced April 19, the deadline for the sale of forms and regist...

NEWS AS IT IS ON AFRICAN WOMEN CUP OF NATIONS

NEWS AS IT IS ON AFRICAN WOMEN CUP OF NATIONS(AWCON) 2016 African Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) winner with Super Falcons, Asisat Oshoala, is among five Nigerians nominated in other categories for honours at the Glo-CAF African Football Awards taking place in Abuja on January 5, 2017. In the list released yesterday 11/12/2016 by Confederation of African Football (CAF), Oshoala was listed alongside South African Janine Van Wyk, Ghanaian Elizabeth Addo and Cameroonians Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene and Raissa Feudjio Tchuanyo for the Women’s Player of the Year. Oshoala won the award in 2014, alongside being named Youth Player of the Year. Cameroonian Gaelle Deborah Enganamouit was named Women’s Player of the Year 2015. Super Eagles’ forwards, Kelechi Iheanacho and Alex Iwobi were among players nominated for honours at the Glo-CAF African Football Awards. In the category of Most Promising Talent, Iheanacho and Oghenekaro Etebo were the on...