The University of Ilorin,
Kwara State, has reportedly signed aMemorandum of Understanding, MoU, with an American
company, Arrow Capital Solar Company, to produce 500 mega watts of solar
energy.
This project, which allegedly N600 billion costs is
aimed at ensuring that the institution has an uninterrupted supply of
electricity
According to TheNewsNigeria,
the project will commence immediately and will be completed in October, 2016.
This is arguable the first of its kind in the Nigerian varsities.
Chief Executive Officer of Arrow Capital Solar Company,
Brian Travis, while addressing the press said, the project is driven by a
private sector and is an "absolute demonstration of private sector initiative by the
American company in Nigeria.”
Travis also added that UNILORIN was chosen for the project
because of its strategic location, pointing out that the institution is an
ideal location for solar power, especially that the backbone of the electricity
distribution in the country runs through the line of the institution.
He also added that his company was buoyed by President Muhammadu Buhari’s announcement during his official visit
to America that Nigeria was highly committed to solar power.
“The
project is roughly N600 billion and is expected, when completed in about five
months time, to produce 500 mega watts of solar energy.
” It is going to supply 10 percent of power to Nigeria; we have
three major grids and with significant power we will extend to Lagos, Kano and
other parts of the country. “
In response to this development, Vice Chancellor, University
of Ilorin, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali has said expressed his excitement for
the project.
He said: “We at the University of Ilorin see the project as an opportunity
to contribute to the efforts of the federal government of Nigeria in terms of
power generation and distribution.
” Again, we are looking at the benefits the University will derive
from the whole exercise, among which is the constant power supply to our
university. We cannot over emphasise the need for that because we have a lot of
departments that depend on constant power supply, most especially our
biomedical research. We recently commissioned a Centre for Research Laboratory
and we have quite a number of research groups being encouraged to do research
and we all know that we cannot carry out scientific research appropriately
without constant power supply.“
Ambali also added that this development will go a long way
to encourage the graduate students of the university in their research to
generate data that would be acceptable and comparable to others across the
globe.
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