Tutu Fellow Ifeoma Malo was interviewed by This Day Live on her views on renewable energy in a country with a chronic energy shortage.  Malo is a former senior policy advisor to the Nigerian government on energy and is now active in advocacy for renewable energy use in countries such as her own and others facing the challenge of meeting growing energy demands. She makes the case that renewable energy is the best solution to Nigeria's struggle to meet its energy needs.

She points out that there are a billion people in the world without electricity, many of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa. Malo says that renewable energy has demonstrated its ability to successfully deliver power elsewhere.  Some countries have run their entire systems on solar and in Germany and Sweden, even with their huge industrial infrastracture, renewable energy is able to provide uninterrupted power. 

Her organization, Power for All, promotes the use of solar energy for smaller scale stand alone systems that don't require massive government investment in a smart grid.  If people are able to meet their electrical needs now off the grid, they may in future be able to feed back into a grid or micro grid when that catches up. Policy changes like removing certain tariffs can positively impact adoption, along with access to consumer financing to market.  Malo believes that Nigeria alone could get up to 10 thousand Megawatts in renewable energy in a fairly short period of time with the right policies in place.

The full interview can be read at This Day Live.