By Demilade Adeniyi
Renewable energy would soon begin to be deployed to power critical public services in the health, education and transportation sectors in Lagos State, the government said on Wednesday.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of the two-day workshop on Lagos urban power design sprint, which held at Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, the Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), Engr Olalere Odusote, said the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration plans to generate 1GW of renewable energy by 2030.
The workshop is organised in partnership with the Resilient Cities Network (R-Cities) through the Lagos State Resilience Office (LASRO).
Odusote, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry Engr Mosunmola Solabomi Sasore, said the commitment to renewable energy is part of the administration’s commitment to promoting renewable-driven energy transition in line with Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
“Lagos State Government is committed to green energy transition and ensuring universal access to clean, affordable and reliable energy in the state. This is evident in the various policies and strategies aimed at creating an enabling environment for the proliferation of renewable energy technologies.”
He said last year, Lagos State was invited by R-cities Network to participate along with three other cities, in green and equitable recovery programme (G&ER) aimed at supporting members of its global network in accelerating equitable enrgy transition through resilience building efforts. Other cities currently participating in the programme are; Cali, Columbia, Cape Town, South Africa, and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Odusote said the government is happy that the R-Cities Network is partnering with the state to develop competence in the renewable energies and the government will be looking forward to the preliminary projects to be refined in phase three for pre-feasibility funding.
Earlier, R-Cities Network’s Regional Director for Africa, Dana Omran said the organisation looks forward to projects that experts gathered by the state’s resilience office would put together to uptake renewable energies for the state. He said education and health remains critical sectors that would immensely benefit from the initiative.
Omran said R-Cities, a club of 100 cities around the world which Lagos State joined in 2016 has been promoting resilience initiatives that would address shocks and stresses that accompany cities around the world.
She said the R-Cities would look forward to fundable projects that would be co-created by the team of experts at the workshop, adding that funds are already available and would be deployed to assist Lagos build the requisite support.
The Lagos State Chief Resilience Officer (Lagos CRO) Dr Folayinka Dania described the workshop as culmination of years of partnership between the Lagos State government through the resilience office and the Resilient Cities Network.
She said: “Over the next two days we will be working together to explore opportunities that will unlock innovation in renewable energy technology development with focus on private sector involvement to support Lagos’ manufacturing and technical capacity to support renewable energy.”
Recall that on transportation, which the first of its THEMES Agenda, the Sanwo-Olu administration announced that the Blue light rail would be powered by electricity, while an energy transition of the BRT buses is ongoing to convert the diesel transmission to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), while its partnership to refleet the BRT with electric buses are also ongoing.