Govt could save $45m from florescent lamps – UNDP

The United Nations Development Programmes-Global Environment Facility, UNDP-GEF, has said Nigeria could save $45 million from every one million compact florescence lamps, CFLs, it replaced with incandescent light bulbs.

UNDP-GEF said the country could well save more on electricity to get better and efficient service if it replaced all the incandescent light bulbs in government residents and public institutions.

Mr. Etiosa Uyigue, UNDPGEF Energy Efficiency Programme's National Project Coordinator in an interview with Vanguard at a training organised for members of Hotel Owners Forum Abuja, HOFA, in Abuja, yesterday, that the government should not only pay attention to generating more in the country but should address the issue of efficient usage of energy than wasting it.

He said: "The Nigerian government needs to put in a policy to address the issue of cost; it will cost Nigerian government $1 million to generate one megawatts electricity but if we go into efficient use of the power, we can save a lot.

"For instance, if Nigerian government can remove one million of incandescent light bulbs from the system and replace them with the CFLs, we can save 38 – 40 megawatts and that will save Nigeria government about $45million on every one million CFLs replaced."

It was for this reason that Uyigue stated that the UNDP-GEF was directing its enlightenment campaign to policymakers on the need to conserved energy and save more.

He said further: "That is why we are directing our target to policymakers. We want to let them know that it is not enough to generate energy but to also address the issue of end users in saving the energy."

He said governments around the world had taken steps to phase out incandescent light bulbs in their countries.

The aim, he said, was to encourage the use and technological development of more energy-efficient lighting alternatives, such as compact fluorescent lamp (CFLs).

"Ghana, for instance, spent $6miilon to replace incandescent light bulbs. Other countries that have toed that line include Brazil, Venezuela, European Union, Switzerland and Australia," he added.

As a pilot project of the UNDPGEF project, the Coordinator said the agency would distribute one million compact florescent lamps to residents and public buildings in the country.

He said one million Compact Florescence Lamps, CFL, was small compare to the population of Nigeria which is estimated at about 150 million.

"We are using our scheme as a data gathering instrument to select some areas by working through the relevant agencies before we install them. We are actually gathering data to check the energy efficiency.

"This project will assist the government of Nigeria to put in place comprehensive energy policy and legislation. It will help to minimize the building of power stations, helping to save money which will ne invested in other sectors.

"This will consequently help in mitigating the emission of greenhouse gases resulting from generating energy. It will also help to increase Nigeria's access to electricity," he said.

Though he regretted that the Nigerian market was flooded with fake energy saving lamps, he admitted that the genuine CFLs were quite expensive which is one of the major barriers the project wished to address.