Nigeria’s Federal Government has commissioned a one-megawatt solar mini-grid serving 6,028 connections in Gombe State and started four more projects planned to add 16 megawatts of rural power capacity.
The Tallasse facility, in Balanga Local Government Area, was commissioned Saturday, Oct. 17. It has one megawatt of solar capacity. The facility includes 2.4 megawatt-hours of battery storage.
Abba Aliyu, managing director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), said the system serves 6,028 connections: 5,929 residential units, 84 commercial connections and 15 nodes used for productive activity.
Construction has started on four interconnected mini-grids with a combined planned capacity of 16 megawatts. The projects are planned for Dukku, Bajoga, Kumo and Kaltungo. That figure covers the four projects under construction, not the commissioned Tallasse site. The announcement set no completion date.
The Tallasse installation also includes electric tricycles and machinery for groundnut-oil processing, rice milling and flour grinding. Power Minister Joseph Tegbe and Gombe Gov. Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya presented the equipment as a link between electricity, farming and local businesses. Aliyu said the agency wants to assess rural electrification through economic activity as well as connection counts and capacity. “Access without reliability limits economic impact,” he said. Tegbe said officials expect the projects to support local processing and reduce reliance on costly self-generated power.
The Gombe work is part of Nigeria's Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) program, the government statement says. The World Bank approved a $750 million credit through its International Development Association in 2023. The bank says DARES aims to extend electricity service to more than 17.5 million Nigerians using distributed renewable systems. It also says the program builds on the Nigeria Electrification Project, which supported 125 mini-grids and more than 1 million solar home systems, extending electricity access to more than 5.5 million Nigerians.
