BEYOND CARBON BASED ENERGY: A LEGAL APPRAISAL OF THE FUTURE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY IN NIGERIA.

ABSTRACT Nigeria is a Country well blessed in Mineral and Natural resources, this serves as a plus for Nigeria towards economic and social development but all through the years militating factors of corruption and lack of a well-established framework has stagnated the growth of the nation due to dependence of fossil fuels. This study is geared towards identifying the existing legal frameworks of Renewable Energy, examine the effectiveness of these frameworks and to suggest reforms to boost the transition to Renewable Energy. This study took the Doctrinal approach of methodology with reviewing of various primary sources like online legal articles and journals , case laws and the review of Statute especially the new extant law on Electricity The Electricity Act 2023 and its provisions on renewable energy as well as other secondary sources of Books and working papers of many authors . During the course of the study of this work, it occurred that Nigeria did not come to knowledge of renewable energy until about 2003 and still much focus has been on fossil fuels which explains why it has not taken flight since then. Another finding was that the operation of Renewables in Nigeria is very costly and it takes about ten years to gain a license to operate renewables. In addition there is no synergy between the private and public sectors for Renewable Energy which ultimately yields to lack of funding and investment. This Study submits that Nigeria must focus fully on Energy transition and must make every necessary action to educate the populace on the potentials of renewable energy, there must be synergy between the private and public sectors to further propound funding for renewables new laws must be made and adopted by both state and federal governments towards Renewable energy to specifically address the issues militating against the full potential of Renewables.