18th May, 2023
The Lagos State Government has disclosed plans to deploy renewable energy to power critical public facilities across the state.
This is part of measures to reduce carbon emissions.
Some of the facilities the government indicated plans to deploy were in health, education and transportation sectors and others.
The Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Olalere Odusote, who disclosed this yesterday at a two-day workshop on Lagos urban power design sprint in Ikeja, said that the Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration planned to generate one gigawatts of renewable energy before 2,030.
Odusote, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Engr. Sholabomi Shasore said that the move was part of the administration plans to transit to a renewable energy driven economy which was in line with Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.
“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 energy transition through resilience building efforts. Other cities currently participating in the programme are; Cali, Columbia, Cape Town, South Africa, and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
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.”
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.