Biogas energy use in Nigeria: current status, future prospects and policy implications

Industrial revolution brought coal, a fossil fuel, to the forefront of the global energy scene. This was later overtaken by another fossil fuel, crude oil; and natural gas is trying fast to take over the dominant role in the world energy supply mix. The increasing world-wide awareness and concern about the environmental impacts of fossil fuels coupled with the oil price shocks of the early 1970s and late 1980s, and likely future price hikes, have lent enormous weight to a switch to renewable energy sources. This paper therefore looks at biogas (renewable) energy use in Nigeria, a country which is fossil fuels rich and an oil exporting nation. In order to contain the uncertainty usually associated with structural transformation of the economy typical of a developing country like Nigeria, a three scenario analysis has been adopted to examine the future prospects of biogas in the country. While a generated energy from biogas would range between 5.0-171.0x1012 J in the period 2000-2030 under a moderate ambitious biogas technology programme, some constraints may hinder this realization. These include economic, technical and socio-cultural constraints. Recommendations to overcome these constraints and make biogas technology penetrate even more than already projected into the rural communities and poor urban households have been suggested. Part of the envisaged benefits of biogas use to the national economy includes the avoidable CO2 emissions. If biogas displaces kerosene, at least between 357-60,952 tons of CO2 per annum would be avoided.