EVALUATING THE SOLAR ENERGY POTENTIALS IN SOME LOCATIONS OF NORTH EASTERN STATES OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The economy of any Nation is driven by the amount of energy it is able to make available commensurate to the demand for such energy. The energy demand to drive the economy of Nigeria as a nation is on the rise geometrically, while its availability is either stagnant or in a decline due to inefficient or decay in the available sources of energy generation and the interconnectivity to form national grid. This work examines the potentials of solar energy that could be tapped as an alternative source of energy in North Eastern states of Nigeria, using experimental as well as Theoretical approach in analyzing the amount of collectable solar energy in the study area. The data obtained from the field using weather X-Pro Data logger programmed to record it observations at interval of 60 seconds was analyzed from which daily, monthly and annual collectable solar energy were evaluated. The results obtained showed that North Eastern states have on the average, solar radiation value of 11.5MJm^-2 (3.2 kWhm^-2) and 34.5 MJm^-2 (9.5 kWhm^-2) as minimum and maximum, respectively in 2019, by  dedicating 27, 567.7 km² (0.1% of land mass of states) out of the total land mass of  275,677 km² as solar panel farms, North Eastern, Nigeria has the cumulative potentials of generating 32,970.66 MW of usable Electrical energy which is far more than the current power energy demand of the Nation.