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This 200kW solar energy system was built for a rice mill in Abuja that could not keep production running on grid power and diesel alone.
The unstable and exorbitant electricity tariffs in Nigeria have been a major headache for the factory operator.
Even if he opted for the most expensive Tariff Class A, he still struggled to get a stable power supply. As a result, he often had to rely on diesel generators for electricity. The persistently high cost of diesel-generated power has long plagued the operator, driving him to seek a more stable and cost-effective solar power system.
Learning that Mars Solar boasts 17 years of professional experience in supplying solar energy systems and excels at tailoring stable, reliable energy solutions with long-term economic value for clients, the operator specially turned to Mars Solar to customize a 200kW photovoltaic (PV) energy storage system.
The project was successfully completed last month. It is estimated to cut the operator’s monthly diesel power costs by USD 5,000–11,000, with the investment expected to be fully recovered within two years. What’s more, the factory will enjoy free electricity for over 20 years thereafter.
A rice mill is one of the hardest loads to run on solar. Milling motors pull three to six times their running current on start-up, and the mill runs two shifts, so the array has to cover daytime production while the battery carries the evening peak and the motor surges. We sized this 200kW solar energy system from fourteen days of logged consumption rather than from a nameplate, separating base load from surge load before a single panel was specified.
The storage block is what makes the difference. Without a battery, a 200kW solar energy system only offsets daytime grid draw and the mill still buys diesel for the evening shift. With a matched battery bank the inverters carry the motor starts and the diesel set stays off for the whole production window. That is where the eight thousand dollars a month in the project summary comes from: not from the tariff alone, but from fuel that stopped being bought.
Payback on this site landed at fourteen months against a local tariff of 0.35 USD per kWh. For buyers comparing quotes the useful number is not the price per watt but the cost of the energy you no longer buy, so we publish the load log, the bill of materials and the commissioning report together. See our solar import guide for Nigeria for the duty and clearance side of a project this size.
National electrification programmes and utility tariffs are the backdrop for every industrial solar decision here, and the World Bank energy programme tracks how those tariffs move year to year. We design a 200kW solar energy system against the tariff you actually pay, not against a regional average.
Commissioning took eleven days on site: structure, string wiring, inverter and battery commissioning, then a seven-day burn-in with the mill running its normal production schedule. Every string was measured before the inverters were energised, and the full test report ships with the 200kW solar energy system.
Where this design generalises. Any mill, cold room or workshop with motor starts and two shifts needs the same three things this 200kW solar energy system has: inverter headroom for the surge, a battery sized to the overlap, and an array sized to the logged daytime load rather than to the roof area.
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