Nigeria’s Renewable Energy Milestone: 15 Universities Now Fully Connected to Solar Farms

Nigeria’s Renewable Energy Milestone: 15 Universities Now Fully Connected to Solar Farms

The Rural Electrification Agency has achieved a major milestone in Nigeria’s energy transition, successfully connecting 15 federal universities to solar farms while advancing the world’s largest publicly funded renewable energy access programme. The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has announced that 15 universities across Nigeria have been fully connected to solar farms through its renewable energy intervention programmes, marking a transformative step toward sustainable energy infrastructure for the nation’s education sector. REA Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Abba Aliyu, disclosed this achievement during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, confirming that all 15 institutions are now fully operational with their solar installations. “We also have completed our interventions in the universities where we completed 15 universities as of today. All these universities now are fully connected with the solar farms,” Aliyu stated. This development represents a critical pivot away from the unreliable national grid toward localized, renewable energy generation for Nigeria’s tertiary education sector, delivering uninterrupted power to support 202,983 students, 23,088 staff members, and 5,500 medical professionals across these institutions.

The university solarisation forms an integral component of the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project, which Aliyu described as the largest publicly funded renewable energy access programme in the world. The DARES initiative is structured to catalyze the off-grid energy market through targeted grant support for mini-grid and standalone solar projects, aiming to impact the lives of approximately 17.5 million Nigerians. The Nigeria DARES Project is a $750 million initiative funded by the World Bank and is designed to accelerate access to reliable, decentralized energy solutions for unserved and underserved communities across Nigeria. The project aims to empower state governments, enable private sector participation, and scale solar technologies while contributing to the broader Mission 300 agenda—a global effort to deliver energy access to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. Aliyu emphasized that the project has attracted significant interest and participation from the private sector, contributing to its rapid expansion, noting that for the first time in the country, the agency is deploying more than 1,000 mini-grids nationwide, including both isolated and interconnected mini-grids.

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The university solarisation is primarily executed under the REA’s Energizing Education Programme (EEP) , a Federal Government of Nigeria initiative aimed at providing reliable and sustainable electricity to Federal Universities and their affiliated Teaching Hospitals through solar hybrid power plants and rehabilitated distribution infrastructure. The programme is being implemented in phases, with EEP Phase II, funded by the World Bank, covering seven universities and two teaching hospitals where commissioning is already underway across all institutions, delivering a combined 32MW of newly installed captive solar power plants across beneficiary institutions. Notable installations under Phase II include a 12MW hybrid system at the University of Maiduguri and its Teaching Hospital in Borno State, a 7MW plant at the University of Calabar and its Teaching Hospital, a 3MW installation at the University of Abuja, 3MW installations at the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta and the Michael Okpara Federal University of Agriculture in Umudike, a 2.5MW facility at the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna, and a 1.5MW installation at Federal University, Gashua in Yobe State. EEP Phase III, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), covers eight federal universities and one teaching hospital, with commissioning targeted for Q4 2025, adding another 36.5MW of clean capacity across eight additional university campuses, with Aliyu confirming that “another round of eight more have been developed” as the agency continues expanding its footprint in the education sector.

The cost-saving impact of the programme has been remarkable, with Alex Ekwueme Federal University saving almost ₦2 billion in the last five years on energy bills, showcasing how sustainable energy solutions can drive financial efficiency in public institutions, which is particularly significant given that recent increases in electricity tariffs have impacted public universities, with some paying between N150 million and N300 million monthly for electricity bills. Beyond power access, the EEP Phase II projects have already equipped 140 female STEM students with hands-on training in power system design and construction, while an additional 700 students will be trained in renewable energy courses at world-class training centers in the first year of operations and maintenance, demonstrating the programme’s commitment to inclusive capacity building.

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The REA’s renewable energy push extends beyond universities, with the agency currently deploying more than 1,000 mini-grids nationwide, alongside 48 interconnected mini-grid projects developed in collaboration with electricity distribution companies, operating on aggressive execution timelines of between six and eight months per site. The DARES project has also attracted significant private-sector interest and participation, with Aliyu confirming that the agency has signed several memoranda of understanding with Nigerian banks covering equipment financing, debt financing, and bridge financing for private-sector operators, catalyzing N1.1 billion private sector funding to deploy 1,350 mini grids. Under the Performance-Based Grant sub-component for isolated mini-grids, for instance, Privida Power Limited secured a grant to deploy 2.47 megawatts of solar mini-grids across eleven communities in Kogi State, providing over 11,027 new connections, while eight companies under the Standalone Solar Systems component signed agreements to roll out tier 1 and 2 plug-and-play solutions to households and MSMEs across rural Nigeria. The REA recently completed Nigeria’s first nationwide electricity access mapping exercise, which identified more than 750,000 communities requiring energy infrastructure development, providing critical data for the expansion of electricity access through renewable energy projects.

In a move to ensure the long-term viability of these investments, the REA has established a sustainability framework requiring beneficiary institutions to actively maintain their solar infrastructure, with representatives from 15 universities signing collaborative agreements during the 2024 EEP Stakeholders’ Engagement Forum committing to regular maintenance protocols and financial responsibility for ongoing operational costs. The REA maintains that the approach is private-sector driven, with capital grants used to incentivise operators rather than relying solely on traditional government contracting models, ensuring sustainability as private operators have their own financial stake in the infrastructure they deploy and manage. Aliyu highlighted the agency’s commitment to expanding access to underserved communities, noting that the comprehensive mapping exercise has enabled the agency to strategically target interventions where they are most needed, ensuring that the benefits of renewable energy reach all corners of the country.

Nigeria’s Renewable Energy Milestone: 15 Universities Now Fully Connected to Solar Farms