WHEN ‘SOLONIC ENERGY LTD’ COMMISSIONED OFF-GRID POWER SYSTEM ON ALLEN AVENUE OFFICE AND STREET LIGHTS

A German-Nigerian firm known as Solonic Energy Limited recently donated solar powered street lights to the business district of Ikeja popularly known as Allen Avenue in Lagos. The solar street lights which have been installed and commissioned, has virtually changed the lighting story of that particular area in the long stretched avenue.

Speaking at the commissioning, the Chairman of the organization Otunba Olu Adenodi, in his speech, told the story of Solonic Energy Limited.

“It is my pleasure to welcome you to our office today, to witness first hand, the official commissioning of a 10KVA off-grid Power system which is arguably the first to be constructed to generate energy from the sun to power a whole office of two floors!

“Let me tell you a bit about Solonic Energy Limited. It may interest you to know that SOLONIC pioneered the solar revolution that is currently engulfing the country. The trip I embarked upon to Germany in 2012 prepared the ground for the impact Solonic is making in the renewable energy sector of the economy and the mandatory compliance of the UN directives on climate change which the office of SSA to the President of Nigeria is currently implementing. You all know the effect of carbon monoxide which results from use of fossils fuel. Unlike the clean energy that is derived from the sun.

“I ran into some Germans in Wessel, Germany working on a solar farm that generates enough energy to power an estate comprising of about 500 houses at an unbelievable temperature of -4 degree Celcius! I found among them a Nigerian-German, Peter Ewerem and without wasting time, I appealed to his sense of patriotism and asked him and his white colleagues to try and let us make this happen in Nigeria.

"This led to the visit of Germans to Nigeria about three months after. That trip, which took us to the Minister of Power, National Assembly, BPE, Minister of Trade and Investment provided an opportunity first hand to find out why solar especially the solar streetlights were not working in Nigeria. They discovered that poles carrying our lamps are unknowingly erected close to or under a power line that inadvertently drains the power from the panels and runs it down and out ultimately. Also, the inability read the sun correctly to determine and tap into its efficacy points, using the advanced technology was an issue. The German company– SOLONIC International GmbH now serves as our technical partners, a necessary technical transfer of knowledge.

“Zenith Bank gave us the first break in 2017, we were asked to bring our unique solar technology to bear on 11 of their branches for a start. The satisfaction they got from that has further strengthened our relationship and has earned us installations in many of their branches across the country, from Sokoto to Abuja, Lafia and so on.

“Our activities and capabilities have not been lost on the Presidency, as they got us involved in some of their climate change projects, which cut across markets, hospitals, senatorial districts, offices and so on. The Yoruba proverb which says that when you are sure of the potency of your 'juju', you first use it on yourself. This actually informed our resolve to develop and build an off grid solution for our use and for the use of any of the tenants who may want to key into uninterrupted power supply that this solution will definitely provide. Of course, at a cost!

"The beauty of the Solar powered energy is seeing the interesting impossibility of any militant or by whatever name called, being able to vandalize the sun! Unlike the pipelines! This is a typical example of off grid power generation. What we are trying to exhibit here is to showcase that we don't need electricity anymore! we can have our independent power generation. The best solution to energy in Nigeria is Solar energy. This is what we told the Minister of Power when we first came to Nigeria.

"The level of power situation in Nigeria is worst, generating electricity of 5000 and something Megawatt for over 200 million people, when South Africa, as small as it is, has over 50,000 Megawatt of electricity for its population. So, how do we face this challenge? We need to stand and have our own standard which we call the captive energy. What that means is you can have your own energy for yourself. That is the way they do in Europe. But, we don't have a similar situation in Nigeria. Solar energy is the best form of energy where you can generate and sell the excess that you don't need. You can even sell to the government when the grid becomes stable. That's the way it's done in Europe.”

While describing the launched system, Mr. Peter Ewerem, the MD of the company said, “we have this solution that will provide us uninterrupted power capacity, and we don't need anything from the national grid. We have shut down completely from the national grid and we are using solar to power all our equipment ever since we created this. These are the integrated power distribution and it's scalable. We can decide tomorrow that we want to expand from 15KVA. It depends on what we want to do. The main purpose is to supply electricity into the whole building, which is doable. And they have 30 years life span.”