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| L-R: Dr. Bunmi Adekore, Ph.D., Partner, Breakthrough Energy Ventures; Bill Gates; Femi Adeyemo, CEO, Arnergy; Lily Zhang, Supply Chain Executive, Arnergy; Kamar Bakrin, Board Chairman, Arnergy |
During the visit of Arnergy’s facility, a portfolio company
of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BEV, experts called for partnerships with
financiers and collaboration with industry leaders to accelerate the adoption
of renewable energy in Nigeria, especially in light of the removal of petrol
subsidies and the increase in electricity tariffs.
They also said that the petrol subsidy removal and increase
in electricity tariff have opened a new market for the renewable energy sector.
“I see a huge energy transition opportunity where
distributed solar solutions like Arnergy’s displaces gasoline generators for
millions of SMEs in Nigeria given the recent fuel subsidy removal,” Gates said.
Not realizing a large number of Nigerians rely on petrol
generators, Gates said that it is a huge thing for the renewable energy market.
He also pointed out that financing customers and reducing
cost of systems will be critical for scale.
Femi Adeyemo, CEO of Arnergy, highlighted the modular
Arnergy 5000 lithium battery energy storage systems (BESS) and its proprietary
energy management hardware and Solarbase software that were developed by the
company’s innovative young Nigerian engineers with an average age of 26years.
The technology allows financiers, channel partners, and consumers to lease and
pay for energy at a cost cheaper than current spend on diesel and petrol
generators. Existing customers are in love with her real-time Internet of
Things (IoT) remote monitoring and control of the power systems that allow
remote shut down and turn on and energy efficiency advisory from anywhere in
the world on Android and IoS platforms.
He emphasized that their cost-competitive and durable
technology can provide viable alternatives, enabling numerous small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and businesses to transition from fuel
generators to BESS, hedging themselves against the effect of petrol subsidy
removal.
“Our goal is to ensure that millions of SMEs are provided a
platform to transition their businesses seamlessly to clean energy on the back
of the petrol subsidy removal,” Adeyemo said. “With the solutions we have
developed, SMEs can see 30 to 40 percent savings monthly compared to petrol
expenses.”
For Rotimi Thomas, CEO, SunFi, it is not just access to finance or how cheap the product is but the speed in providing renewable energy to customers and the trust the customers have of purchasing a reliable product with great customer experience that Arnergy offers. “Customers want it now. That speed and the trust that the system won’t break are two important factors for the customers,” he said.
Bunmi Adekore, Partner, Breakthrough Energy said that the
micro-economic environment enables the acceleration of renewable energy. “The
challenge that needs to be uncovered is to get more commercial banks to
participate in financing the customers removing the upfront cost barrier,” he
said.
According to Adekore, modularization and decentralization in
Nigeria’s energy sector are key.
Tubosun Alake, former special adviser on innovation &
technology to the Lagos State governor, said the central control of the grid
over the past couple of decades led to underinvestment. Now that there is
unbundling going on with the new electricity act, there is a big opportunity
for renewable energy to ramp up and play a big part in the country’s energy
infrastructure development.