Firm Gains Global Recognition for Solar Power Initiative

Chineme Okafor in Abuja and Peter Uzoho in Lagos
Nigeria’s distributed energy company, Rensource with headquarters in Lagos, has gained international recognition over its solar power initiatives across the country.

The company was recognised during a panel session with the theme, “need for renewable energy at scale,” at the Bloomberg Business forum held in New York City, during which a video documentary of the company was screened to the audience.

A statement sent to THISDAY, quoted Christine Lagarde, who is European Central Bank president-designate and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief to have said while introducing the video documentary to the audience, that the firm’s initiatives were results of commitment to a sustainable future.

“It is a real story that helps us indicate that committing to sustainable future can actually be achieved. It is a story about a young female entrepreneur who helped create a solar power start-up initiative in Lagos,” Largarde said.

Rensource, said it currently provides reliable, affordable essential services such as clean energy and other value-added services to consumers who previously had little or no access to such services, adding that it was incorporated in 2016 and commenced deployment of solar home systems to residential customers in the same year through a lease-to-own or outright purchase model.

The statement equally quoted its Chief Operating Officer, Anu Adasolum, to have said: “We build solar hybrid utilities that provide energy to businesses and everyday people so that they do not have to use generator.”
Adasolum, further stated that the goal of the company was to solve Nigeria’s power problem, adding: “The entire country runs on millions of generators with so little power. We cannot effectively run our hospitals, factories and homes that way.”

According to the statement, in late 2016, Rensource launched its ‘power-as-a-service’ business model which involves the provision of power to homes and small and medium sized businesses in exchange for affordable monthly payments, with Rensource retaining ownership and responsible for operations and maintenance of the solar systems.

Through this model, it explained that Rensource has installed solar power systems in over 300 locations in Nigeria.
“In December 2017, Rensource diversified to a ‘Powered-by-Rensource’ business model which is a full-service platform for project development, operations and financial arrangement of off-grid micro utilities across Nigeria powering SMEs in commercial centres such as markets and industrial estates.

“In just 4 years, we have powered about 10,000 SMEs,” Adasolum added in the statement.
The statement equally indicated that on the back of the success of the model at SabonGari, Rensource was awarded by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), an implementation agency of the federal government, the mandate to electrify 12 clusters in the country.

It added that the company has a secured pipeline of about 36,000 merchants spread across 13 markets in seven states in Nigeria, out of which over 5,500 merchants are currently connected and have access to safe, reliable and affordable electricity.

Also, as part of efforts to complement its business model, the statement stated that Rensource was building capabilities in the commercial and industrial (C&I) solar space and currently has a pipeline of 47 C&I projects at an estimated capacity of about 45 megawatts (MW), with plans to complete about of them in 2019.