H1: What If Nigeria’s Next Energy Breakthrough Is Not Solar?

For years, Nigeria’s renewable energy conversation has largely revolved around solar. Yet one of the country’s most promising clean energy resources may have been hiding in plain sight. New data suggests that wind, long considered a marginal opportunity, could play a far greater role in Nigeria’s energy future than previously assumed.

According to Oando Clean Energy Limited’s (OCEL) National Wind Resource Capacity Report, developed in collaboration with the Nigeria Wind Energy Council (NWEC), the official Nigerian affiliate of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), Nigeria’s average wind speed at 100 metres is 6.79 m/s, with commercially viable wind conditions identified across several parts of the country. More importantly, the report highlights two regions with particularly strong potential for utility-scale development: the northern highlands and the country’s coastal corridors.

The significance of the report extends beyond its findings. Developed jointly with the Nigeria Wind Energy Council, a body that brings together government policymakers, international development partners, private sector investors and academic institutions to advance wind energy development in Nigeria, the assessment reflects a collaborative effort to better understand and unlock the country’s wind potential. This broad stakeholder engagement lends additional credibility to the report’s findings and strengthens its value as a resource for future planning, investment and policy discussions.

The finding comes at a time when the world is accelerating investment in wind energy. The International Energy Agency projects global installed wind capacity will exceed 2,800GW by 2035, up from just over 1,000GW in 2023. Last year alone, the world added a record 117GW of new wind capacity, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

Africa, however, remains largely absent from that growth story. Despite possessing an estimated 33TW of technical wind potential, the continent has installed only about 9GW of capacity.

Nigeria’s northern highlands could help change that narrative. OCEL’s National Wind Resource Capacity Report identifies locations across Plateau and Taraba States, including the Jos and Mambilla Plateaus, with wind speeds exceeding 7 m/s and the potential to support wind farms of up to 225MW. These are figures that place parts of Northern Nigeria firmly within the range considered attractive for modern wind development.

The surprise may lie even further south. For years, conventional thinking has viewed coastal Nigeria primarily as a hub for ports, trade and oil and gas activity. Yet the report estimates that coastal and Niger Delta locations could support approximately 750MW of cumulative wind generation capacity. Areas such as the Lekki Free Trade Zone and Eko Atlantic combine favourable wind conditions with something equally important: immediate proximity to industrial demand.

This matters because energy projects succeed not only where resources exist, but where customers are concentrated. The significance of locations such as the Lekki Free Trade Zone and Eko Atlantic is not simply that they have viable wind conditions. It is that they sit next to growing industrial and commercial demand centres where reliable electricity remains a critical constraint to growth.

For a country where 44.6 per cent of households still lack access to electricity, the implications are significant. Wind energy will not solve Nigeria’s energy challenge on its own. But as technology improves and investors increasingly seek scalable clean energy opportunities in emerging markets, the country’s northern highlands and coastal corridors are becoming difficult to ignore.

Perhaps the most important contribution of the OCEL National Wind Resource Capacity Report is that it shifts the conversation from possibility to evidence. By producing what is believed to be Nigeria’s first comprehensive, localised wind resource assessment focused on commercial viability, it provides a clearer picture of where future investment can be directed.

For investors, policymakers, developers and energy stakeholders seeking deeper insights into Nigeria’s wind resource potential, the full National Wind Resource Capacity Report is available on the Oando Clean Energy Limited website. The real value of the National Wind Resource Capacity Report may be that it changes the nature of the conversation. For years, discussions around wind energy in Nigeria have been driven largely by assumptions. Today, they can be driven by data. The question is no longer whether Nigeria has commercially viable wind resources. The question is what the country chooses to do with them.