The Fact is that the Natural Hydrocarbons that presently flow out of Nigeria's Oil blocks will one day be exhausted and we should start now to look at sustainable clean alternatives.
The Food belt of Nigeria produces a lot of biomass waste in the form of:
1. Damaged produce - Fruits and Vegetables
2. Biomass waste - Elephant Grass, Corn,millet, rice,yam, cassava stalks as well as husks from grains.
These two products depending on their water content and ability to generate bio-gas after going through a digester can either be processed into a Bio-gas which can be used to generate electricity or burnt as a biofuel.
Small communities or villages in Benue,Ebonyi,Kogi,Niger, Kwara, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Taraba, Adamawa, Plateau can emulated villages like Freiamt in Germany that is leading the Grass-root movement to generate its power and supply excess to the grid.
The Bio applications blog of Obayomi Olatunbosun has a breakdown of how much a Nigerian made bio digester will cost.
By the time you add other alternative power generation and equipment that consume low energy like:
1. Photovoltalics
2. Flywheel Energy Storage - For environmentally friendlier uninterruptible power supply.
3. Water Wheels - For power generation
4. Heat Exchangers - For Lower cost Refrigeration
5. LED and Low Wattage bulbs
Small villages, and towns, in rural Nigeria can now start to chart the paths of their development without depending on a failed national grid electric network.
Photos courtesy of Engindia, haase-energietechnik,Randburg
