Professor Emeka Oguzie is our guest in this fourth installment of the TEA Breaks series. He tell us about the importance of training and resources for young people in order to address Nigeria’s energy transition, as well as his plans to manufacture the first next-generation solar module in Africa by March next year.
‘TEA Breaks’ is a series where we chat to our experts on the TEA@SUNRISE project about Transforming Energy Access (TEA) and next-generation solar. Join us for 10-15 minutes with a cup of tea (or beverage of your choice) as we discuss the challenges and opportunities of renewable energy transitions.
Transcript:
Georgia Bevan (GB): Hello I’m Georgia and welcome back to TEA Breaks, which is a series where we talk to our experts on the TEA@SUNRISE project about their work in next-generation solar and transforming energy access.
So today I’m talking to Professor Emeka Oguzie, who is Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri in Nigeria. He also leads the Africa Centre of Excellence in Future Energies and Electrochemical Systems, also known as ACE-FUELS.
Q1: What is your area of expertise?
GB: So welcome Emeka, to start us off could you just tell us a bit about yourself and your area of expertise?
Emeka Oguzie (EO): Thanks a lot, Georgia. It’s a pleasure to be on a TEA Break.
As you said I’m Emeka, I’m a chemist by training. My PhD is in physical chemistry, from the University of Calabar, Nigeria. I did a postdoc in China at the Institute of Metal Research in Shenyang.
So my research area had been in the area of materials degradation initially. But now we are looking into things on clean energy and energy materials.
So the initial research interest was based on availability of resources for research, while our interest in energy is based on the fact that we have created resources for that now and we have the capacity to do good research in the field of energy and energy materials.
Q2: What attracted you to working in this area?
GB: So what attracted you to working in the area of energy materials and renewables?
EO: So firstly, we have a pronounced energy problem in Nigeria, Africa, and we just have to get into that area to start to contribute. Those are the problems. That’s the primary reason to start to apply our skills and expertise to solve this pressing problem that, if we address it competently, it will lead to a lot of economic benefits for the country, for the region. So that’s why we are working in this area.
Q3: What are the benefits and challenges of locally manufactured, next-generation solar technologies?
GB: And so the next question is a bit more focused on TEA@SUNRISE. So we’re focusing on locally manufactured, next-generation solar rather than the traditional silicon solar panels. What do you think the benefits of focusing on this type of newer technologies are, but also are there going to be any challenges that we’ll need to face?
EO: Well the benefits are, well, the benefits are immense, right. I always say that for us in Africa, we have an abundance of solar radiation. So if we are able to exploit this sufficiently we will definitely solve Africa’s energy problem. But we cannot have that sufficient exploitation if we depend on imported solar panels, right?
So this next-generation solar initiative is something that is very, very crucial for us because it gives us the opportunity now to start to create and to be part of the efforts to develop a solar technology that we could more easily adopt and we could also more easily develop and work on. So it’s very important for us, very useful, because the most important thing is that the next-generation solar cells are not going to be as restrictive in development as the silicon-based solar cells. That’s why it’s a very welcome development for us.
GB: And do you think there’s going to be any challenges to using these newer technologies and trying to develop them?
EO: There’s always going to be challenges in developing and adopting new technologies. There’s going to be challenges in market penetration, you know, because already there’s an established and well-accepted alternative in the markets now. But there will be challenges in that regard.
These challenges are not going to be so much insurmountable because if we do the right kind of information dissemination, the right kind of sensitisation, our people would definitely be in a position to identify and accept these next-generation solar cells as our thing, right. And that would be a huge selling point for this initiative.
Q4: What are the main challenges facing Nigeria’s transition to renewable energy?
GB: So in your view, what are the main challenges facing Nigeria’s transition to renewable energy?
EO: Well the first challenge is weak government policies. Or let’s say weak goverment interest because the policies are there already. We have a well-defined Nigerian energy transition plan. But we have not been made well aware, right. So if I’m not aware, I’m in the energy sector more or less, if I’m not aware, then it means the information is not there. There is not sufficient commitment to that yet, by the government. Because if we have to do this right, it has to involve everybody.
There has to be a lot of training. I keep emphasising training because we cannot depend on outside knowledge to solve the transition or to address the transition in Africa, in Nigeria. We have to train our people and some programmes we’ve done show a very big deficit in awareness among the people, even in the university system. That’s not good enough. That’s one big challenge, right.
The second big challenge is to develop programmes, well-defined programmes for this training. Develop well-defined research development and innovation systems for that. There are no targets, there are no clear-defined research focus areas for the transition. So these kind of things are very essential to have a holistic and all-encompassing energy transition plan.
The third is the funding. I know there’s a lot of funding in that area, but we’re not seeing it. The funding has to get down to those that are actually stakeholders in the energy sector so that everybody can start to work together, right.
Most of the effort is by multinational and corporate entities. It’s not, it’s not a wholly indigenous effort. We need to develop our own efforts and have our own clear direction in this regard.
Q5: What have been some of the most effective initiatives or programmes through ACE-FUELS to address the skills gap in renewable energy? And how can we make sure that it’s done in an equitable way?
GB: And that leads on quite well to the next question. So as I mentioned at the start, you’re the centre leader of the Africa Centre of Excellence in Future Energies and Electrochemical Systems, or ACE-FUELS, which was set up to fill a growing education, skills, and information gap in renewable energy in the region. What have been some of the most effective initiatives or programmes through ACE-FUELS to address that skills gap? And then also, importantly, how can we make sure that that’s done in an equitable way?
EO: So what we’ve done right, firstly at inception we set up postgraduate level courses. New curricula in courses that will provide the baseline, the basis for these skills, addressing the skills gap. We had four programmes at inception, with specialisations in five areas. We have a solar energy specialisation, we have bio energy specialisation, we have geothermal specialisation, we have hydrogen energy specialisation, and we have a specialisation we call clean hydrocarbon specialisation.
We have a course, again masters and doctoral courses, in electrochemical technology. Then we have now a new MSC programme in energy management and entrepreneurship.
We’ve done training in different countries. We have the programme we call the Change for Sustainability programme, which is focused on training 50,000 young people on energy transition and renewable energy technologies.
In Nigeria we have what is called a National Youth Service Corps where every graduate is made to mandatorily spend one year on national service, right. So we have an arrangement to train these people in their orientation camps and we’ve traing close to five thousand of them over the past three years. So these are all initiatives to sensitise people.
And what’s more important for us lately with our involvement in the TEA@SUNRISE programme and the REACH-PSM programme is that we are developing very advanced research facilities for next-generation solar cells, and research for batteries.
This is very key because there’s no doubt in Nigeria, we have very vibrant and innovative young people, young minds, and they’re looking for positive engagement, right. If you come to Nigeria and talk about tech, we have a very vibrant tech ecosystem, but that tech is mostly financial technology.
So if we are able to provide access to resouces, to facilities for useful research and innovation in solar cells, in batteries, and we open this up to our young people, I’m very sure they will do magic with that. That’s very key for us.
So that’s why we are happy with our participation in the TEA@SUNRISE is very key. It gives us the opportunity for intellectual collaboration and technology transfer that we need. We want to ‘commonise’ research and development in these areas, want to make it common so that undergrad students will know that they have access to facilities to play with these things and we will start to see innovation in a very short time.
GB: Exciting. And so what about the sort of equitable aspect of it? Is there anything we can do to make sure…?
EO: I’ll tell you a story, right? In our recent student recruitment efforts, that is the last cohort of students, we got just three female students. Three, right. So when we had our management meeting in March, we took a decision to try to ramp up female participation.
And within this last month in March, we celebrated in our centre, the International Day for Women and Girls in Science, we did a big show of that. And also the International Women’s Day celebration, we did a big show of that too. And we actually had to engage with wome group activists, right. We went to the government, went to the parliament. And as we speak now, we had 63 new applications from women, which we’ve admitted about 35 of them just within the space of one month.
So that opened our eyes to the need again to go beyond the obvious, original, to these under-represented groups because we are very key and very keen in female participation in what we are doing. It’s something that we will do and we will develop even better strategies for that. And I’m sure by the next recruitment you might have more females. Because of course we give them scholarships. But even that, it didn’t seem to work in the past until we got into this engagement.
GB: Yeah that’s an interesting point. Trying to reach a different audience, really trying to reach out to different groups and spread the word.
EO: A different audience, yeah. Not the normal recruitment drive. We went to a totally non-scientific audience.
GB: Oh cool, well that’s a realy big step up, a big increase in applicants then, that’s good.
Q6: What do you hope to see achieved through TEA@SUNRISE?
GB: So my last question then is just what do you hope to see achieved through TEA@SUNRISE?
EO: What I hope to see with TEA@SUNRISE is increasing popularisation of R&D and innovation in solar tech, and in next-generation solar cells. We need to ‘commonize’ it and make it accessible to more people, you know, and do a lot of dissemination to make it obvious. And look, you have this facility available, we have resources to support, just come and get involved.
So in a short time, the objectives of TEA@SUNRISE to have a stable, efficient, next-generation solar cells, we will achieve it. We have the innovative minds in Nigeria and in Africa to push this once the opportunities and the resources and the facilities are in place.
GB: It seems like a really exciting field to be involved with because it’s all moving so quickly.
So we’re hoping that you’ll be able to make the first next-generation solar module in Africa. Is that something that you are expecting is going to be able to happen?
EO: Yeah, we are almost certain right by the first quarter of the year 2026, that’s the first quarter of next year, we would have made our first next-generation solar modules made in ACE-FUELS.
We are acquiring the facilities both for research and scale-up at the same time. So we are getting the proper facilities for this kind of thing. We are getting the proper collaborations and expertise available to us. So we are sure that by the next two or three months we’ll be fully set up, right. And then by the first quarter of next year, we’ll have the first one, first demonstration.
GB: That’s really exciting. That should be a good attraction to get people to want to come and work in the area as well.
EO: Definitely, yeah. We also believe that if we’re able to show that this will – hold it up – we’ll show that this module was developed and made in the centre. It would be a big statement and a big boost.
GB: Yeah, definitely. Thanks very much for speaking with me. It was really enlightening.
EO: Thank you for the opportunity.