Exploring Gains of Renewable Energy at Federal University of Kashere in Gombe

Adebayo Oluwakayode

The Federal University of Kashere, Gombe State, is fast becoming a home for renewable energy innovation and development, especially given that the rate of on-grid power supply had been relatively low before now.
The relief brought about by exploring renewable energy in the institution and its environs has been massive and the gains have been immeasurable.
Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Umaru Pate, a communication scholar, has taken it as a task to transform the university from its erstwhile dependence on grid-generated electricity to the exploration of solar as an alternative.
Today, all important offices such as ICT, Chancellery office, administrative block, radio station, streets road channels, among others, are run by the installation of  solar panels.
The university which as been in existence since 2011 had been going through challenges of electricity supply, invariably affecting the performance of the students and causing insecurity among the community members.
Kashere community like many other towns in Nigeria have gone through tremendous challenges, including undersupply of electricity, wherein it was  difficult to charge there gadgets, use electrical equipment and so on.
But with the introduction and innovation of renewable energy power supply   the Kashere community is now transformed into a solar-powered area. The community and people living around the axis now have less security concern, the electrical power supply there is now more stable.
Before the introduction of solar and by extension renewable energy in the area, there were many challenges that the university and  community were facing. The university found it difficult to print documents for official use and photocopy papers for examination.
 The use of computer-based systems for examination, internet connectivity to access school portal and insecurity on campus and and off campus was also noticeable.
Due to low electricity supply  and being one of the major challenges of federal university of Kashere, the community youths would sometimes take advantage of student by extorting money from students just by charging their phones.
In the past, students were attacked at night. Another challenge was the noise pollution of the generators around the university premises and the community, where the people and students found it difficult to communicate and reading was difficult.
The university’s management and Kashere community heads  eventually came together to find a away to reduce this negative trend by exploring the use of  renewable energy.
The  use of renewable energy such as solar energy has tremendously helped to transform education in the area, where students no longer worry about waiting for electrical power supply before they read, power their smart phones.
 Even the university now uses the advantage of solar energy through the solar panel to restore energy supply to power their computers, printers and photocopying machines.
The major impact of the solar panel energy supply is in the university ICT centre where there is 24-hour power supply and constant internet service; the radio station which is backed up with a bigger solar panel and standard batteries that enable the station run their programmes without any break in transmission. In the night, the streets are now well illuminated.
In Kashere community, the use of solar energy streetlights have really helped to reduce the rate of crime and accidents at night. Since the installation of solar energy supply in Kashere community and the university, it has provided a new lease of life for households, institutions and businesses.
One of the major areas in the community is the Kashere central mosque where solar panel has been installed, thereby giving them 24-hour power supply.
In conclusion, renewable energy has transformed Kashere community and the federal university located there by providing energy access, reducing energy cost, improving health, creating jobs as well as reducing crimes and accidents.
Adebayo Samuel

*Oluwakayode, a 300 level student of Mass Communication , wrote this piece from the Federal University of Kashere, Gombe State.