The Nigerian Institute of Physics recently held its 34th annual National Conference at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife between 11^th and 15^th October, 2011. Mr. Efurumibe of the Department of Physics, MOUAU was in attendance and presented a paper entitled: “Renewable Energy and Prospects in Nigeria.”

According to Mr. Efurumibe, in Nigeria today, burning of fossil fuel for electricity generation is the order of the day, while almost every house- hold in Nigeria has one or more generating sets. Banking industries, telecommunication companies, and Universities are not also left out as they all are using generating sets to run their businesses. He asserted that burning of petroleum products to generate electricity is not the solution to the energy problem we have in Nigeria, giving the reasons to include:

1. It contributes to global warming.
2. The expensive nature of running generating sets using petroleum products.
3. The crude oil reserve is dropping seriously and very soon it would be exhausted (DPR, 2010).

He stated that since there is abundance of renewable sources of energy (particularly the solar) in Nigeria, it is high time Nigeria embraced these renewable sources and de-emphasis the burning of petroleum products. Mr. Efurumibe enumerated some of the identified barriers to the development of renewable sources of energy in Nigeria to include:

1. Lack of appropriate policy framework of legal, fiscal and regulatory instruments to attract domestic and international investments to renewable sources of energy.
2. No power purchase agreement framework for generation and supply of renewable energy to the national grid.
3. Lack of an empowered government agency to oversee the development of renewable sources of energy in Nigeria. Presently, the energy commission of Nigeria is giving much emphasis on nuclear source of energy, which is not very healthy for the Nigerian nation.
4. Affordability: most renewable energy technologies have high up-front capital cost compared to their conventional energy alternatives which have long term benefits.
5. Lack of trained manpower in Nigeria to develop the technology.
6. The last identified barrier is public awareness. A lot of people are not aware of the capabilities of the available renewable energy technologies and their future prospects. Public awareness of the benefits of renewable sources of energy need to be created for this when done, will aid its development a lot.

To address the above-mentioned Mr. Efurumibe is of the view that since conventional energy is depletable with its high extinction risk, government should enhance the energy security of the country through the establishment of a sustainable energy supply system. This can be done through the promotion of the policy of diversifying the energy supply to include alternative or renewable resources and technologies into the nation’s energy supply mix since the country is endowed with abundant renewable energy resources like solar, wind, biomass, small hydro, etc., which have minimal or zero supply logistic problems.

He urged the policy makers to make renewable energy development a priority of government at all levels while lawmakers should develop appropriate legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks that will de-emphasize over-dependence on fossil fuels. It is believed that in doing all these, renewable sources of energy will gain ground in Nigeria.