In Nigeria, Solar Panels Are the New Wedding Gift(www.bloomberg.com)
16 pointsby toomuchtodo2 hours ago2 comments
  • turtlebits43 minutes ago
    The nice thing about solar is that you can start small and add incrementally.

    I dont know what the $4500 includes, but you can fairly easily get 1kw of solar and 5kWh battery and inverter for 1k USD.

  • toomuchtodo2 hours ago
    https://archive.today/ivm8t

    Assuming ~50M households in Nigeria, and the current cost of ~$4500 to equip a home with solar, the math is still daunting.

    - The equipment needed to keep a three-person home running will pay for itself in as little as 16 months, BloombergNEF research shows — but, at $4,500, getting set up costs about seven times as much as buying a new petrol generator. (It’s the generator’s fueling costs that will eventually bite, at roughly $200 a month.)

    Related:

    Chinese EVs Make Inroads in Nigeria as Gasoline Prices Rise - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-02-26/lagos-ev-... | https://archive.today/lMAtD - February 25th, 2025

    (if you're looking for a startup idea for YC, consider a way to finance these systems for consumers; go to the bond market for capital, manage credit risk and accepting payments; your TAM is all of Africa's energy needs)

    • telebuban hour ago
      Great application of cross continental research by Blomberg. A typical Nigerian family of 3 (already atypical) is probably not spending one parents entire salary on electricity.
    • silverForkan hour ago
      You need to buy fuel to use a generator. No fuel-> No electricity. The sun though rises everyday.
      • toomuchtodoan hour ago
        Solar panels also last at least 25 years, batteries anywhere between 10-20 depending on chemistry and cycling. Stocks vs flows.

        (tangentially, China's solar PV manufacturing capacity is double current global demand, so capacity to produce is not the issue, but getting the clean tech into the hands of those who need it)

    • metalmanan hour ago
      I am very happy to see Nigeria establishing such a sensible tradition. solar and batteries will outlast a generator, and have significantly higher uptime, also quality of life around a generator is reduced, along withtime to start/stop and get the fuel, which requires fuel to get, so any reasonable comparrison would need to get hard numbers on all of the costs. I live off grid, and can proffer this, that solar is slightly more boreing than watching paint dry, as the paint does change it's coulor ever so slightly. Sodium batteries are going into giga scale production now and will offer significantly better economics ,for small business and farms solar is the thing that will smooth out economic shocks and give the versatility to adapt