Auxano Solar, a Nigerian homegrown renewable energy provider, has stretched its solar panel manufacturing capacity, from 10megawatts (MW) to 110MW.
The company commissioned a new 100MW automated Solar PV manufacturing plant on September 28, 2023, in Lagos, the country’s commercial hub.
Prior to establishing the new facility, Auxano ran a plant with an installed capacity of 10MW in an area called Navy Town, in the west of Lagos. It was the country’s first privately owned, solar PV manufacturing plant. In 2020, Auxano signed a $1.5Million expansion deal with All On, an investment company created by Shell, the European hydrocarbon major, to increase its corporate capacity to 110MW. In 2022, All On gave Auxano another $5000,000 facility.
The new 100MW factory, located in the commercial suburb of Ibeju Lekki, in the eastern flank of the city, is currently the largest such plant in the country.
As a manufacturer of solar panels, Auxano steps farther up the value chain from the rush of renewable energy providers, who sell and maintain solar products. “Our target is both the formal – solar firms who are into mini-grids, commercial and industrial solar providers – and the informal sector – the importers of solar panels for resale,” the company told reporters.
A 100MW capacity solar panel manufacturing plant translates to 333,334 solar panels, if it is considered that a typical solar panel has a capacity of around 300 watts (0.3 kW) under ideal conditions.
Nigeria doesn’t have grid-scale renewable energy generating plants. But it has a potentially large decentralized renewable energy sector. The country “has built a strong market position in decentralized renewable energy (DRE), which includes pico-solar appliances, solar home systems (SHS), and commercial and industrial (C&I) standalone systems”, according to The Energy Access Workforce Nigeria report, promoted by Power for All, the global campaign to end energy poverty, in collaboration with Clean Technology Hub Nigeria. “The DRE has been growing rapidly and delivering clean and affordable energy, particularly to remote rural communities”, the report says.
This simply means that Auxano has a market that is ready to be plugged in. A significant percentage of the 85 Million Nigerians without access to grid-connected electricity will be absorbed into the rapidly expanding decentralized renewable energy sector, whose suppliers are enabled by products manufactured by Auxano.
“Our focus is to penetrate the Nigerian market before moving towards exporting the Solar PV to neighbouring countries,” adds Chuks Umezulora, Auxano’s Co-founder and CEO.
“This facility is one of many to come and we look forward to eradicating the numbers of people in the country without access to electricity by providing affordable Solar systems,” he disclosed.
