Assessing the potentials of largescale generation of solar energy in Eastern Nigeria with geospatial technologies

Abstract

Abstract The quest to improve power supply in Nigeria has motivated the country to look for alternative energy resources to augment existing ones. Being in the tropics, Nigeria is well positioned to harness solar energy to improve its energy poverty status. Although, a number of solar energy projects have been initiated in the arid parts of the country, very little has been done in the humid Eastern part of the country. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the solar energy generation potential in Eastern Nigeria, using geospatial technologies. A spatially-explicit multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was implemented with GIS, using a number of geospatial data products including Landsat satellite images, NASA global direct normal irradiance (DNI), ASTER Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and National Forest Reserve map covering the study area. Various derivatives, including land use and land cover (LU/LC) map, slope, and factor maps were generated in other to produce a solar energy potential map of the region. This research found that over 59,000ha (0.67% of the region) were found to be suitable for the production of solar energy.