Using remote sensing technique to assess biomass energy potentials and appropriate site locations in Nigeria

Abstract

In a bid to promote clean energy usage and conserve the forests, the Nigerian bio-energy policy was recently constituted, to help tackle the energy insecurity in the country and help increase its carbon credit in line with the United Nations development goals. This paper presents a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based assessment of biomass energy potentials and appropriate siting of biomass plant in Nigeria using remote sensing technique. It promotes sustainable and clean energy penetration and conserve forest life, which supports the UN SDGs on; Clean and Affordable Energy (SDG 7), Climate Action (SDG 13) and Life on Land, including forest sustainability (SDG 15), and the Federal Government of Nigeria's net-zero emission commitment. The weighted overlay decision analysis was employed considering multicriteria approach. The various vegetation, forest, water bodies, lands, water source locations, accessibility to roads, aspect and topography were the criteria that were considered for locating the biomass facility. Efforts were made to quantify the biomass energy potentials of the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria, with the possibility of locating biomass plant; North East, North West, North Central, South East, South West and South South. The results obtained in this study reflect that the north eastern part of Nigeria has the highest theoretical, technical and economical energy potentials of crop residues (1163.32, 399.73 and 110.56 PJ/yr, respectively), while the south eastern part has the least energy potential (52.36, 17.99 and 4.98 PJ/yr, respectively). Also, the north western part of Nigeria has the highest theoretical, technical and economical energy potentials of forest residues (260.18, 156.11 and 43.18 PJ/yr, respectively), while the south eastern part has the least energy potential (1.79, 1.08 and 0.30 PJ/yr, respectively). The remote sensing technique employed in this study suggested that the northern part of Nigeria is most suitable for siting biomass plants in the country.