Geographical information system based assessment of various renewable energy potentials in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria’s energy transition plan is hinged on increasing the energy mix from renewable energy sources. An understanding of where the potentials of these renewable energy sources lie is very crucial to enhance quality and timely policy formulations, interventions and proper decision making. This paper aims at providing a holistic assessment of the potentials of key renewable energy resources; solar, wind, biomass and small hydro in Nigeria using ArcGIS; a geospatial analytical platform that provide data and visualizations of these potentials across the country. This paper focuses on the Inverse Distance weighting methodology which overlays various map shapefiles and spreadsheets containing relevant data such as; waterlines and water areas, road and rail networks, crop production, longitude and latitude, wind speeds, solar irradiation, elevation and other relevant map data, shape files for all the Nigerian states and local governments. These data are geo-processed to align the results to the exact locations as provided by their geographical positions stem coordinates. These interpolation results are further reclassed within standard limits for the various output parameters such as crops, forest areas, built-up areas, water bodies, shrubs/grasslands, barren lands and waterbodies to reveal suitability areas for siting the various renewable energy power generating plants.