Renewable Energy Penetration in Warri Metropolis

Abstract

Energy plays an important role in the economic growth, development and security of any nation. Despite having abundant supply of both renewable and nonrenewable energy resources, Nigeria still experiences acute shortage of energy supply to its populace. Currently, the country depends largely on its fossil fuels derived from the Niger Delta region with attendant negative environmental impacts in the area. It is advocated that a switch to renewable sources will eradicate or at least ameliorate some of the environmental challenges. This study attempts to gauge the feasibility and potential of renewable energy (RE) to become a substitute or at the minimum a significant complement to fossil fuels in Nigeria with focus on Niger Delta. As such, attempt is made to assess the current degree of penetration of RE by measuring the level of awareness and utilization as well as identifying factors affecting utilization in the region using Warri metropolis as a case study. 232 survey questionnaires was deployed in the four local government areas - Okpe, Udu, Uvwie and Ughelli-North - that makes up the metropolis across households, commercial ventures and industries with 180 retrieved. Results show that awareness is highest among households at 66% and lowest for commercial ventures and industry at 30%. Utilization was generally low at 23% across households while none of the commercial ventures and industries sampled utilizes RE with most citing cost of installation and maintenance viz a viz their power requirement as a major factor. ANOVA shows there is no significant difference in behavior across locations while chi square test affirms that RE utilization is a function of awareness. Outcome points to need for greater awareness campaign and cost reduction of RE technologies.