Olaniyan Abdulrahman, Caux Stéphane, Maussion Pascal
Laboratoire Plasma et Conversion d'Energie, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, INPT, UPS, France.
Heliyon. 2024 May 15;10(11):e31300. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31300. eCollection 2024 Jun 15.
Nigeria is the seventh most populous country in world being the highest in Africa. The country is blessed with vast natural resources and is one of the highest producers of oil in the world. However, the inadequate supply of electrical energy is a major setback in the nation's economic development. Thus, there is need for an urgent and immediate solution to address the electricity access situation in Nigeria. It is in view of this that we first present an overview of the electrical energy situation of Nigeria (especially in the rural areas). The benefits of rural electrification and it impacts are discussed to buttress the need for electrifying rural areas and an overview of the abundant renewable energy resources in Nigeria is presented. As a proposed solution to improve the electricity situation, the concept of a reuse solar photovoltaic system based on e-waste components and old materials is presented. The system comprises repurposed Power Supply Unit (PSU) from old desktop computers, old thermal car Lead-acid batteries, old solar panels and Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units. The possibility of adopting this solution in Nigeria depends on the amount of e-wastes generated annually thus necessitating the need for an analysis to see the annual impact of this system on electricity access based on the amount of available e-waste. Using the huge amount of e-waste generated/received annually in Nigeria, the feasibility of our solution is assessed by estimating the possible number of households that could be electrified by the second life renewable energy systems we propose. Due to the lack of official data in this field, certain constraints and assumptions were defined for the purpose of this analysis which resulted in obtaining a range of results that showed the possible impacts of adopting the reuse system. The analysis showed the minimum and maximum impacts the reuse solution could have on electricity access in Nigeria, based on best and worst case scenario respectively. The results further showed that an average of 287,000 households can be electrified annually if this solution is adopted, causing 2.2 % increment in population with electricity access in a year (between 620 thousand and 4.1 million individuals). Thus, the result is an indication that it is possible to achieve immediate growth in electricity access based on renewable energy integration, frugal innovation and reuse/repurposing of e-waste materials. In addition, this extension of their lifespan reduces their ecological footprint. It is expected that the energy demands of the continuously growing population can be met by strict adherence to set targets including adoption of smart-grids, generation diversification and focusing on rural electrification.
尼日利亚是世界上人口第七多的国家，在非洲居首位。该国拥有丰富的自然资源，是世界上最大的石油生产国之一。然而，电力供应不足是该国经济发展的一大障碍。因此，迫切需要立即找到解决尼日利亚电力供应问题的办法。鉴于此，我们首先概述一下尼日利亚的电能状况（特别是农村地区）。讨论了农村电气化的好处及其影响，以强调农村地区电气化的必要性，并介绍了尼日利亚丰富的可再生能源资源概况。作为改善电力状况的一个提议解决方案，提出了一种基于电子垃圾组件和旧材料的可重复使用太阳能光伏系统的概念。该系统包括从旧台式电脑回收利用的电源装置（PSU）、旧的汽车铅酸热电池、旧太阳能板和不间断电源（UPS）装置。在尼日利亚采用这种解决方案的可能性取决于每年产生的电子垃圾数量，因此有必要进行分析，以了解该系统基于可用电子垃圾数量对电力供应的年度影响。利用尼日利亚每年产生/接收的大量电子垃圾，通过估计我们提议的二次生命可再生能源系统可为多少家庭供电，来评估我们解决方案的可行性。由于该领域缺乏官方数据，为此次分析定义了某些限制条件和假设，从而得出一系列结果，显示了采用该可重复使用系统可能产生的影响。分析分别基于最佳和最坏情况，显示了该可重复使用解决方案对尼日利亚电力供应可能产生的最小和最大影响。结果还表明，如果采用该解决方案，每年平均可为28.7万户家庭供电，一年内使通电人口增加2.2%（介于62万至410万人之间）。因此，结果表明，基于可再生能源整合、节俭创新以及电子垃圾材料的再利用/重新利用，有可能立即实现电力供应的增长。此外，延长它们的使用寿命会减少它们的生态足迹。预计通过严格遵守既定目标，包括采用智能电网、发电多样化以及专注于农村电气化，能够满足持续增长的人口的能源需求。
