allAfrica.com: Nigeria: 'Abuja Residents to Get Solar Electricity Soon' (Page 1 of 1)

Mr. Akin Pedro is the Chairman and Chief Executive of Pedro SolarPower Nigeria Limited. He is a seasoned business personality who has been in solar business for over two decades. He is a business management graduate of the Georgia State University in Atlanta USA. He is also a licensed real Estate valuer and a chartered mortgage consultant. Mr Pedro has held various Management positions and founded some successful companies, including Appraise America Inc. and Prime Homes Finance Corp. He worked as management consultant with SC Solar Inc. of Charlotte North Carolina,USA for over four years before starting Pedro SolarPower Corp., a parent company of Pedro Solarpower Nigeria Limited. In this interview he says Nigeria will soon start enjoying solar energy.

Can you tell us about solar energy and your company?

We started about May last year, so we are barely one year old. We started with only one product, the solar powered lantern. Now we have five products - the lantern, the solar powered torchlight, solar powered street light, the solar powered garden lamp and the solar powered water pump. We will also have what we called the solar powered smart generator. That has been shipped and would soon arrive from the USA. It is a very powerful product. It's a product that will get you out of the fangs of diesel and petrol. It's a combination of inverters and batteries. But what we have is an electronic generator that is powerful. We would have the 3KVA which can power your household facilities like fan, TV, radio, computer, street light and two air conditioners. If you turn all of them at the same time, the generator will last for six hours continuously but if you don't turn on all of these appliances at the same time, it can run for 12 hours. And you need only two and half hours of PHCN to recharge the smart generator to last for six hours. So if you have used it for six hours and you have PHCN power for two or three hours you can recharge and use again. But the smart generator is not solar powered though it can be done but it's expensive. The battery option cost around N745,000 but the 3KVA solar powered will cost you about N3 million. For instance, the lantern cost about N2,500 without the panel but with the panel is about N6,500 for distributors. But the benefit is the solar panel because they last for at least 25 years. Our street light is powered by heavy duty batteries and it also have the controller which make it turn on and off automatically at night and in the morning respectively. Its light will come up automatically at sun down and go off at sun rise. The solar Panel will recharge the battery for one day but the battery that we have can power the street light for five days even when their is no sun light at all within those five days to recharge it. But it could be recharge with solar for just one day.

What spurred you into investing in solar energy?

I still leave in the USA. I am trying to come back home. I didn't come to Nigeria for over 20 years. I came back to Nigeria after that long period in 2006 and of course I had been told about the poor power situation in Nigeria. So when I came to Nigeria and saw the intensity of the power problem in Nigeria I said I should be able to do a little thing to help. By that time as I was working with the FB solar inch at Carolina as a management consultant. So I went to them with my proposal and we decided to start with the touch light. We designed it in America but because of the high cost of production in the USA, we took it to a factory in China to produce for us. So somebody had to do something to help assuage the power situation in Nigeria. We intend to have our first branch out of Lagos in Abuja before the year end. We had a lot of customers that are coming in from the north and subsequently we will move to some other areas of the country.

This is a capital intensive business. Isn't it?

Solar panels are very expensive and this remains one of our big challenges. Even though people believe that solar energy is the energy of the future - clean, renewable, clear and reliable but the only thing that is standing between the public to benefit from solar energy is the price. The solar panels are expensive and that is a major challenge. But prices of oil are going up and solar energy prices are coming down because solar energy is cheaper now than it was fifteen years ago. Fifteen years from now it will even be cheaper. But even though solar energy is not so accessible in terms of acquisition, if you consider the cost analysis and long term benefits its actually cheaper energy and affordable.

If you have a solar system today, it will last you for at least 25 years. If you spread the cost over those years it is cheap.

You said you manufacture in China. Are you thinking of establishing manufacturing plant here in Nigeria?

We manufacture some in China and others in USA. Sure, we are thinking about that. We are just one year old but in the next five years, it will be a different story all together.

How would you take advantage of the emergency on power to be declared soon by the federal government?

Our company's ultimate goal is to be involved in providing affordable energy to Nigerians. We are starting with solar light now but we intend to go to some other energy forms like wind and hydro energy. Our goal is to be a part of the broad solution to the energy crisis in Nigeria.

What is the cost effectiveness of solar power equipments?

Take the solar power lantern as an example, members of the public will buy it for N8, 000 but the solar panel has a life span of at least15 years, if you do little calculation of the cost in relations to 15 years, it's N52 per month to maintain.

If you were using a kerosene lantern, how much will you spend on petrol in N15 years at N50 per litre? Our solar power torch light sold for N2, 500 last for at least 5 years, if you buy regular torch light at N500 for five years you would have spent at least N24, 000 on batteries. If you are using solar powered street light, you wouldn't have to pay electricity bills anymore but your streets will be light all night long. The value of lives and property that would be protected by that is inestimable.

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