GSWI visit report to Nigeria 2017
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Executive Summary and Recommendations
The Global Solar and Water Initiative team undertook a visit to Nigeria in order to assess selected existing solar pumping schemes, evaluate the feasibility to solarize water supply points in selected camps and raise awareness and solar technical expertise among WASH stakeholders in the country. 19 water supply schemes were visited in Maiduguri and Gwoza with 9 systems already solarised but with majority having insufficient data for analysis of the design and performance.
Some of the sites could only be accessed through helicopter and this hampered some planned visits due to bad weather.
Solarisation has been done in all the locations visited. Whereas a technical and economic feasibility study is absolutely vital not only to ensure coherent design but also to determine the cost effectiveness of the solarisatio, this has not been the case. Certain parameters have not been taken into account when planning installation with some agencies using a one-size fits all approach.
In all the cases where underperformance of existing solar systems was reported, it was found that it had to do with lack of technical understanding to be able to design or replace a system to meet the requirements.
The visit entailed collection of relevant data needed for full techno-economic analysis of the systems, in order to determine feasibility for solar pumping as well as gauge the design and performance of solarised schemes. Absence of basic data such as safe yields, water outputs or water levels made not possible to analyse all the visited water points. Its absence put into question the basis for some of the existing solar designs.
Climatological and hydrogeological conditions in the locations visited were favourable, making the use of solar pumping a technically feasible solution for each and every borehole assessed
Wide support and prioritization given by some donors to solar solutions in Nigeria, together with a high solar irradiation through the year make the context good to use solar pumping in the country. The Nigeria government has solar pumping technology explicitly mentioned in the Partnership for Expanded WASH (PEWASH) Programme towards as the preffered source of energy motorised schemes.
