THE ROAD NOT TAKEN - SOLAR POWER

Since President Trump knows better, I will endeavour not to dwell on the potential for nuclear proliferation in the Middle-East following the decade-old agreement with the United Arab Emirates, the so called 123 Gold Standard barring uranium and plutonium enrichment. Now recently the Saudis have extracted from the Trump administration a far less restrictive and bigger deal. We Africans, what do we know? What do we care? If things go boom, we will surely get our share of the fallout on the tradewinds. The world must end somehow. # Here is something a lot more interesting to Nigerians considering our parlous circumstance. The author reveals as follows: . "On February 6th ACWA Power, a Saudi firm, announced that it had won the contract for a new 300-megawatt solar farm in the northern desert. ACWA promises to produce electricity for 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, a record-low tariff. [Though costs for nuclear power vary with reactor design, even the most efficient ones are more expensive. And whereas nuclear is a mature technology, costs for solar fall each year.]" # I had assumed that I am well informed in such matters but obviously I am not. This cost is so low that it is out of this world. ACWA and the Saudis must know something that we Nigerians don't. The tariff in question is approximately N8.50 per kWh, essentially a giveaway by our standards. Fashola must hear about this. What are we waiting for? # I hereby renew my call on the Federal Government for the scrapping of the National Electricity Grid. As this unstable federation totters from one crisis to another, the component parts, happy in the union or not, should find ways to best produce the electricity that they need. In the past I have pointed at Lagos as a poster child. The Federal Government should stay out of its way so that Lagos can truly set an example. It has to be noted that the presence of ex-governor Fashola does not make much of a difference since he is playing by Buhari’s rules. We all know that our president cannot realistically differentiate between Mega and Watts. # Other states will follow suit. If any has excess power to spare, all well and good. Our people's ingenuity and project management skills must be let loose. # Baron Roy, Tony Osborg $