Osinbajo commissions first 2.8mw Solar Hybrid Power project in FUNAI

Determined to provide uninterrupted electricity to Nigerian students through offgrid captive power plants, VicePresident Yemi Osinbajo will today commission a 2.8 megawatts Solar Hybrid Power Project in Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi State. The project, the first solar hybrid power plant of the Federal Government’s Energising Education Programme (EPP) to take education to the next level. The solar hybrid power plant will see to it that 7,700 students and 1,819 faculty staff at FUNAI have access to clean reliable energy from the university’s 2.8mw solar hybrid power plant. Damilola Ogunbiyi, managing director/ceo, Rural Electrification Agency (REA), says the EEP is a Federal Government intervention focused on developing off-grid, dedicated and independent power plants as well as rehabilitating existing distribution infrastructure to supply clean and reliable power to 37 federal universities and seven affiliated university teaching hospitals.

Apart from the 2.8mw solar hybrid power plant, other projects to be commissioned at the event would include the launch of 7.5km of solar powered streetlights as well as a world-class renewables’ training centre. “This Programme will undoubtedly improve the quality of education, research and health care services at our federal universities and teaching hospitals. I’m proud of the role that women have played in the successful implementation of this project from the Head of project being a women to the female STEM students that all worked on the project. No doubt, the EEP represents a significant milestone in green financing in Africa,” Ogunbiyi says. The EEP project is an outcome of collaboration between the Rural Electrification Agency, Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, the Federal Ministry of Environment, the National Universities Commission, and executed by Sterling and Wilson, a solutions and services provider that provides business solutions for solar, wind energy, transmission and distribution, hybrid energy storage and turnkey data centres to organisations across the world.