By Bennett Oghifo
The convergence of Town and Gown to fuel the nation’s plugin to the global quest for zero emission of carbon received an extraordinary boost this week with the commissioning of a solar charging facility the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) installed at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
The inauguration of the solar-powered Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station and an electric vehicle pilot project assembled by NADDC in conjunction with the University of Lagos, was hosted by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Niyi Adebayo unveiling the plaque. It was witnessed by the Chairman of the Board of NADDC, Senator Osita Izunaso, Senator Iyola Omisore, the Director General of NADDC, Jelani Aliyu, deputy vice chancellors of the university, among other distinguish guests.
Director General, NADDC, Jelani Aliyu, said the charging station is 100 per cent solar powered and that it has 60 PV Monocrystalline Solar arrays (panels), with capacity of 86.4 kilowatts per hour. There are three online-offline 5KVA Hybrid inverters synchronised to give 15 KVA/48 WATTS, and have 36 units of Deep Cycle Gel batteries with an output of 48 volts/19 and 0.
He said the powerbank consists 36 units of dry cell, deep cycle batteries of up to 95Kwh storage capacity. The system provides ordinary 13A and 15A sockets that can support all types of normal chargers. The station also provides a 7.4kw CCS fast charger and can support up to 11kw types.
According to him, the monitoring and evaluation team would be made up of experts from NADDC, the university, Hyundai motor company and relevant stakeholders.
He said the station would offer the university an effective platform for advanced innovation in EVs and related renewable energy solutions.
The NADDC’s position was reinforced by UNILAG’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Ogundipe, who said the university would put the facility into proper use.
Prof Ogundipe, an environmentalist, said the innovation came at the right time when the global community is shifting to renewable energy, stating that the institution would continue to invest in research.
“Another thing is to give people a gift and they embrace it with one hand but we are embracing it with two hands and also I want us to know that Engr. Aliyu you have opted to be part of the faculties in the Faculty of Engineering. We don’t want people like you to leave the system, so what we do now is we bring people from the industry to come and teach our students and I’m sure since I’ve declared it publicly and I’ve approached you publicly, I’ll make sure that you are part of our faculties here.”
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Niyi Adebayo said the NADDC Solar Powered Electric Vehicle Charging Station and the launch of the NADDC Electric Vehicle Pilot programme was another of the federal government’s initiatives, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, designed to promote advanced technology transfer and the development of sophisticated human capital.
“For my ministry (the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment), programmes such as these are the lifeblood of everything we are trying to achieve. It is, after all, a proven fact among advanced nations, that the key to successful industrialisation is strategic human capital and capacity development in state of the art technologies.”
The charging station, he said would offer students firsthand experience with the latest innovations in mobility and renewable power technology. “It is strategised to be an effective platform for focused Research and Development into even more applicable Vehicle Electrification solutions for Nigeria and Africa.”
According to the NADDC Director General, Aliyu, “The world is in a race on the backs of eagles, and Nigeria cannot afford to be in that race on the backs of anything less, neither a falcon nor a hawk, but on the backs of eagles.
“Whatever advanced technology is being leveraged by developed countries around the world must also be identified, transferred and optimized by Nigeria for the betterment of its people.
“We are now in the fourth Industrial revolution, characterized by highly advanced technologies, robotics, artificial intelligence, block chain technology and other incredible solutions.
“For the Automotive sector it means vehicles that are highly embedded with ict solutions, connectivity between the vehicles themselves, their users and the road infrastructure. It means vehicles that think for themselves and are therefore safer, more efficient and better for humanity.
“And most important of all is the revolutionary paradigm shift in the type of energy that would power these new generation of vehicles. We are now in the Vehicle Electrification era: cars, trucks and buses all powered by electricity. A strategic transition from fossil fuel (i.e. petrol,/diesel) to pure electric power.
“This is important because the world can no longer afford to continue polluting the environment through the use of fossil fuel and its attendant emission of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane. That is why the NADDC, with the immeasurable support of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, is committed to promoting the adoption, development, manufacturing and usage of advanced technology in the Nigerian Automotive sector. And so the question now is not what are we going to do, because we have already started.”
