Nigeria’s state oil company – the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has said all its retail outlets which include petrol stations will soon be run on electricity generated from the sun.
It said plans were underway to ensure this happened, even as it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in China with a Nigerian-Chinese consortia to develop biofuel production facility in Nigeria.
NNPC’s chief, Dr. Maikanti Baru said in a statement from the corporation that as part of the corporation’s expanded programme on renewable energy, it planned to power all its retail outlets by solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities.
Baru, also explained the corporation will develop grid and off-grid solar power systems as business models to contribute to the clean fuels initiative of Nigeria.
More biofuel production pacts
The corporation which has a number of pacts to build biofuel production outlets in states such as Ondo and Benue amongst others, also disclosed it signed two separate MoUs on biofuels project development at the ongoing Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in Beijing China.
It explained the pacts were signed between the NNPC and the Obax-Complant Consortium, and the NNPC and the Capegate-Nanning Consortium. on the other hand.
Baru, said the MoUs signing was aimed at implementing Nigeria’s desire on clean, alternative and renewable energy programmes, particularly automotive biofuels production nationwide.
“The aspiration for the exploitation of renewable fuel resources in Nigeria is to implement our nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement; part of which requires the blending of 10% by volume of fuel-ethanol in gasoline and 20% by volume of biodiesel in automotive gas oil (diesel) for use in the transportation sector,” he said.
According to him, for a country like Nigeria with a daily consumption of over 65 million litres of automotive fuels, it was easy to see that enormous volumes of fuel-ethanol and biodiesel would be needed to meet this obligation.
Baru, stated that meeting and sustaining the target requires strategic investment in more than 10 large biofuels complexes across the country.
He also noted that the execution of the two MoUs would help develop the first biofuel production complex in Nigeria, and that before the end of the year, the development of not less than three other complexes would commence in the country.
