A SWOT Analysis approach for the development of Photovoltaic (PV) energy in Northern Nigeria

This research employs a comprehensive Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis to investigate the advancement of photovoltaic (PV) energy in Northern Nigeria. The study delves into the intricacies of introducing PV systems within the context of economic challenges, including issues such as currency volatility and inflation, which amplify costs and impede capital investments. Environmental factors, such as dust and sandstorms, are identified as obstacles diminishing the efficiency of solar panels. Additionally, security concerns in remote areas elevate operational costs and influence investment decisions. This paper proposes effective mitigation strategies, encompassing widespread public awareness campaigns to augment market engagement, the establishment of mini-grid systems for enhanced energy distribution, customised on-the-job training programs to foster local expertise in PV technology, and the utilisation of micro-grid systems as experimental grounds for regulatory and policy testing. By synthesising these components, the study offers a comprehensive overview of the prerequisites essential for the successful proliferation of PV energy in Northern Nigeria. Emphasis is placed on the potential for solar energy to significantly contribute to the region's sustainable development and achieve energy independence when the identified strength, and opportunities are exploited. The key strength identified are the average Global horizontal irradiance (GHI) of 5.436kWh/m2, Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) of 1534-1680kWh/m2, Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCoE) of $0.1, and an opportunity to fully utilise the over$ 7.88 million grant authorised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa

Telemedicine via Satellite: Improving Access to Healthcare for Remote Rural Communities in Africa

In this paper, realistic telemedicine implementation scenarios with architecture are proposed to help in extending quality healthcare using satellite and integrated satellite-terrestrial networks (ISTNs). Telemedicine is the use of telecommunications and information technology to extend healthcare service delivery to underserved, remotely isolated communities. Global coverage, broadcast/multicast capability and the high capacity of satellites in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) could potentially serve as a tool to extend quality healthcare to underserved remote rural areas. However, Long End-to-End latency or Round-Trip-Time (RTT) attributed to the GEO satellites could degrade the performance of data communications leading underutilisation of the high available capacity due to high link errors and the long latency, particularly when using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) over the internet, which accounts for about 90% of the internet traffic today. The actual latency (RTT) of GEO satellites is about 1700ms to 3000ms, which could lead to capacity utilisation as low as 39% of maximum 464kbps available capacity of our testbed service provider. However, TCP Performance could be improved by adopting other transmission protocols which we are currently testing and investigating possible modifications for even more enhance performance over satellite and hybrid (ISTN) channels network environment