TotalEnergies Tips Renewables to Meet Nigeria’s Rising Energy Demand 

Peter Uzoho

In the wake of the current global push for transition to cleaner and sustainable sources of energy, TotalEnergies Nigeria Limited has picked renewables as an important resource to help Nigeria meet its increasing energy demands in the future.

The Country Adviser (Multi-Energies), Total Energies, Adewale Fayemi, stated this during a panel session at the ongoing Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) Energy Week 2023 holding at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja.

At the session titled, “Exploring Emerging Opportunities for Local Content in Meeting Future Energy Demand,” Fayemi said renewable energy would become a major contributor in the energy mix if properly harnessed.

Noting that the energy demand in Nigeria was growing due to an increase in industrial activities, he said there was need for the industry to examine roadmaps towards a sustainable energy future.

While pointing out that gas would remain Nigeria’s transition fuel, he explained that renewable energy could also complement the numbers to meet up with the demands, not just for Nigeria but around the world.

Fayemi said, “Nigeria has an ambition to increase our energy capacity to 30GW in 2030, of which 30 per cent will come from renewables.

“When you look at our energy generation, we have 16.4GW of energy capacity, 12GW is from gas, while renewables are just about 2.2GW which is mainly hydro.

“As the energy industry continues to grow massively, oil and gas will play a major role but there is no stopping the trend that we need more energy. So, renewables will come to complement that.

“Oil and gas activities are driven by technology and most of these technologies can be applied through the renewable energy sector.

“Our installations are online remote monitoring and control. So, if you have big solar farms or hydro power stations, that is the exact way you are going to monitor and control it.

“The companies operating in this space need to access their capacities, identify the synergies that it can work on and start evolving in a business model to take advantage of these opportunities.

“This is already happening in other parts of the world, where the major service companies, all have product lines that dedicate to renewables energy.

“The operation and maintenance of equipment are also important; you cannot have a solar plant running without maintaining it. So, whatever skills you have to ensure high availability of oil and gas installations, you can also use the same for the renewable energy projects.”