As part of its contribution to solving the country’s power challenge the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) has stepped up its initiative on Renewable Energy.
To further harness its potentials in this sector, a colloquium tagged
2015 Renewable Energy summit was held on Tuesday, March 24 where
experts from various fields charted the way forward.
Convener of the Summit and Director, Centre for Renewable Energy
Technology (CRET), FUTA, Prof. Olurinde Lafe while highlighting the
vision and mission of the Centre said purposeful collaboration which is
crucial to attaining the goal of Renewable Energy is possible in a
business environment that fosters innovation.
He called on Universities, research centres, industries and
government agencies to come together through purposeful collaboration
achievable by having proposals and other knowledge infrastructure that
can develop new technologies to tackle energy challenge currently facing
the nation.
He said “Innovation is the process of transforming knowledge into new
products, processes and services which, in turn generate new economic
benefits. For this process to succeed, a complete system must be
available that supports the movement of a new idea from initial concept,
through research and development, to a ready-for-market product”.
On how to achieve a FUTA Campus Power Supply (FCPS), Professor Lafe
welcomed proposals from individuals, Departments, Units to come together
so as to build a formidable power house for FUTA.
To achieve this, he said his Centre is always ready to collate ideas
from the public that will eventually translate to achieving
uninterruptible power supply everywhere on FUTA Campus at the most cost
effective and economically sustainable rate.
Lafe also said that the University stands to improve on its
Internally Generated Revenue and also develop its capacity through staff
and students involvement in the design, construction, operation and
maintenance of the Campus Power Supply. The don further encouraged the
University Community on constant collaboration, innovation and
commercialization of the power supply when generated to solve the power
challenge currently facing the University and its environ.
He urged the Management of the University not to relent on its effort
to further take FUTA to the market place. He said “As a University of
Technology, the nation rely heavily on us to proffer solution to the
nation’s energy challenge. We cannot continue to depend on the Federal
Government alone. The Government has a role to play, while the ivory
towers have theirs too. Let us position our Institution as the one that
has what it takes to proffer solution to the nation’s energy challenge.
As a Centre, we are ready to take the challenge. Many Institutions home
and abroad, are willing to collaborate with us. At the moment, we are
working with some of them and very soon the result will start to show.”
In his address, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adebiyi Daramola,
represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Development, Professor
Tolulope Akinbogun said the University had resolved to make renewable
energy one of its focal research areas. This informed the establishment
of the Centre for Renewable Energy Technology (CRET) to spearhead,
coordinate and facilitate research and community service in renewable
energy.
Lamenting the negative effect of lack of enough energy on the
nation’s economy, Daramola said “We all know that a nation’s economic
prosperity is largely dependent on its industrial productivity. We also
know that a great driver of industrial growth and productivity is
energy. It is therefore not any longer news that companies and
industries are folding up in Nigeria because of energy challenge, a
situation that escalates the cost of production through alternative
source of energies. We in FUTA strongly believe this trend can be halted
and it must start from the University with purpose driven research like
ours.”
Speaking on the energy potentials of Nigeria, he said “We are a
nation naturally endowed with everything that can be used to generate
energy; rivers, wind, waste, coal, sun, etc. These have been grossly
under-explored as alternative sources of energy and this
under-utilization has contributed to our over-dependence on hydropower
and consequently, its acute insufficiency.”
The Vice-Chancellor commended the effort of the Director of CRET,
Professor Olurinde Lafe, a globally acclaimed renewable energy expert
and scholar and his team for their effort in their short time of
existence in improving the University’s effort in Renewable Energy.
He called on the whole University Community, especially Centres and
Departments to continue to collaborate with CRET to make FUTA formidable
in the Renewable Energy effort.
Experts, including staff and students of FUTA made suggestion to the
Centre on how to improve on energy issue, particularly in imputing
Renewable Energy Components in ongoing new building projects to reduce
dependency on unavailable power.
An international expert in Renewable Energy, Professor Babatunde
Obilana warned against unfavourable government policies that may thwart
Renewable Energy effort. He also called for adequate research, training
and retraining in Renewable Energy to strengthen the knowledge base of
experts in the sector.
Obilana also called on the Centre for Research and Development
(CERAD), and other Departments to work closely with CRET to embark on
research that will be beneficial to FUTA and the whole country.
Post a Comment