Over the years, Nigeria has been faced with electricity generation and distribution challenges across the various states and local governments. In spite of government’s efforts at improving electricity for both commercial and residential users, the persistent erratic supply of steady electricity to the citizens of the country both in rural and urban areas continues to be a challenge to successive governments. As stated in a recent publication of the Economic Confidential, Nigeria’s demand for electricity will hit 88,262MW by 2020.

The problem of improving grid electricity continues to be a mounting challenge for both the government and private partners. With the emergence of renewable sources of energy for commercial and residential use and the dependence of small and medium scale enterprises on electricity to run their business, there is need to harness reliable and affordable energy system for citizens in Nigeria and Africa in general.

The dependence on fuel and diesel generators as alternative sources of electricity in Nigeria has increased over the past few years, both for domestic and industrial use. As the costs of daily operation and maintenance of the generators are increasing, as well as increases in tariff by electricity distribution companies, business owners are facing challenges in running their businesses and achieving expected profits, as well as environmental degradation associated with running the fuel generators. Hence, the need to source for alternative source of energy which is reliable, movable, has zero carbon emission, durable and most importantly, cost effective for domestic and commercial use.

The solar powered generators are designed to provide electricity to off grid areas, serve as emergency backup during power outages, used during natural disasters to provide energy to areas cut off from grid electricity, as well as power household appliances and industrial devices.

Solar generators are manufactured and designed with specifications to meet the energy needs of its users. It can be used indoors, for outdoor ceremonies, picnics, and camps. It is designed to be simply plug and play, with no roof mount installation required for the solar panels or any form of installation on the system required for the system to be operationally up.

It is also fossil fuel free, hence it doesn’t require any form of fuel or diesel to power on. Its energy is gotten from solar panels, other forms of renewable energy (wind mill) and also an inlet for grid electricity to provide energy which is stored by the batteries. The solar generators also do not require regular maintenance, rather the storage batteries are replaced after about 5 years of usage while the solar panels can last for about 15 years.

The solar generators will provide a reliable alternative to roof top installation for citizens who have limited space for roof top installation, as well as an alternative to fossil generators. It is also easily movable and transported from one location to another, making it available for use at various locations as against the roof top solar installation which requires installation.

Solar generators are clean, silent, efficient and durable if the right specifications are used to match the energy needs.

Asuefien Eli, is co-founder of Safety World Services, a Nigerian-based renewable energy firm. He wrote from Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city.