Solar Energy Potentials of Some Selected Locations in Northeastern Nigeria

Sunlight is the primary source of clean and cheap energy but its intensity varies from one location to another depending on the latitude, altitude, atmospheric absorption and scattering by air molecules, dust particle and water vapour among others. The aim of this work is to determine the solar energy potentials of Gombe ( latitude 10° 16' 59.9988'' N and longitude of 11° 10' 0.0012'' E), Jalingo (latitude 8° 53' 34.2672'' N and Longitude 11° 22' 37.74'' E), Damaturu (Latitude 11° 44' 49.1856'' N and Longitude 11° 57' 58.2912'' E) and Bauchi (latitude 10° 18' 50.9724'' N and longitude 9° 50' 46.6152'' E) in northeastern Nigeria, the process involves obtaining the solar irradiation data for these four locations from a renewable energy simulation package ( photovoltaic geographical information system, PVGIS) for a period of 10 years, a daily, monthly and annual solar irradiation was obtained for each of these locations. A peak monthly values was obtained in the month of January for Gombe, Jalingo and Bauchi while the month of March has the peak value for Damaturu, an average daily solar irradiation of 5.8977kWh/m2/day, 5.9026 kWh/m2/day, 6.0337 kWh/m2/day and 5.9821kWh/m2/day and an annual values of 2154.44kWh/m2/yr, 2056.17 kWh/m2/yr, 2202.30kWh/m2/yr and 2150.60kWh/m2/yr for Gombe, Jalingo, Damaturu and Bauchi respectively. These locations have very similar atmospheric conditions and hence a closer range of solar energy potentials compared to places like Lagos, Onitsha and Sapele in Delta state with (4.42kWh/m2/day), (4.43kWh/m2/day, and 5.31 kWh/m2/day respectively. Damaturu has the highest solar irradiance among the four locations studied. Grid- connected PV system and thermal system (concentration thermal technology) can be built to support electricity generation and hot water production respectively for residential and industrial use. The utilization of Solar oven, cookers and coolers technology should be encourage by government and non-governmental organization, this will help stop global warning and desert encouragement and hence conserve other natural resources( such as forest) for other use ( furniture construction).