Every rainy season, Chuka Matthew begins rationing electricity in his Lagos home, not because his solar panels have failed, but because the sun has.
The civil servant invested over N8 million in rooftop solar to escape Nigeria’s unreliable grid, but weeks of cloudy weather mean his batteries no longer last through the night.
His experience reflects thousands of Nigerians who turned to solar power to escape the country’s unreliable electricity grid; however, the arrival of the rainy season has brought an unexpected challenge: finding enough sunlight to keep the lights on.
“My solar panel is not functioning at optimal levels right now because of limited sunlight,” Matthew said in an interview with BusinessDay. “Even after charging it with electricity, it is not able to power gadgets in the house for a long period of time. It needs sunlight.”
Matthew is one of thousands of Nigerians who are in hunt for sunlight as weeks of persistent clouds and frequent rainfall across much of the country have reduced the amount of solar energy reaching photovoltaic panels, leaving homes and businesses with undercharged batteries, shorter power supply hours and, in many cases, a reluctant return to petrol generators.
